tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post4831607490623366717..comments2023-11-22T09:11:01.567+00:00Comments on George Szirtes: Back from... BrightonGeorge Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-42446466477870309422010-02-13T18:59:53.268+00:002010-02-13T18:59:53.268+00:00Absolutely.Absolutely.Suhayl Saadihttp://www.josephsbox.co.uknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-18529339043318200402009-11-22T12:05:58.442+00:002009-11-22T12:05:58.442+00:00Good to hear from you Suhayl. Nationalism seems to...<br>Good to hear from you Suhayl. Nationalism seems to me - and always has - a particularly bad focus for shows of comradely, familiar, religious, class, regional or tribal communality. When I think of national states as we understand them I think of a period between two and three hundred years ago, in other words of something fairly recent in human history, something rather artfully constructed. The flag stuff is, I feel, a kind of lie - the true subject is always something else, a group loyalty that has genuine virtues and genuine vices, but tends to binge more on the vices.<br /><br />Marriages, children, sharing of conditions, the taking of joy in the success of those you are associated with, and a certain satisfaction in the failures of those who oppose you are natural enough, but we can govern the tendency to overindulge in them most of the time. <br /><br />There are genuine virtues there too. I think it is good that groups of people should take pride in what they do and have done well. A symbolic endeavour, like sport, is a proper human endeavour embodying some admirable human qualities. <br /><br />Rivalry and teasing are a kind of pleasure to many and, as symbolic containers of more visceral, atavistic fears and hatreds, they are tolerable up to a point.<br /><br />Nevertheless, I prefer, on the basis of a certain amount of historical experience, something that treats of humankind in general, a humankind that takes full account of difference and values it - values it intensely - where it is possible to value it. <br /><br />It is too easy to talk of universal brotherhood, but I don't see very much choice, or rather I can't really see anything much better in view as an ideal.<br /><br />Flower of Scotland - nice song doing what song does, plucking away at those visceral strings for those who are particularly tuned, or pre-tuned to them. The Hungarian national anthem is rather lovely too. But it's a form of intoxication, isn't it?<br /><br />Nationalists are alcoholics of the spirit. I like my whiskey but it's not my life and I could well live without it.<br>George Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08889600788146987089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4638619958588096610.post-59437421769670684892009-11-21T19:08:28.003+00:002009-11-21T19:08:28.003+00:00George, I hope you're well. Enjoying your exce...George, I hope you're well. Enjoying your excellent website, as always!<br /><br />It was suggested by one of my (Asian Scots) co-panellists during a public discussion in which I was involved in the summer in Edinburgh that I ought perhaps to experience the hairs on the back of my neck rise, as his did, on hearing 'Flower of Scotland'. My reply was that this was a Pavlovian response. Dogs, saliva and all that. Personally, I don't know about you, but the hairs on the back of my neck rise when I see a ghost. Or a guy with a knife, coming towards me. Or a national flag - any national flag - being hoisted in the breeze to the pounding of drums. For a more pleasant, endorphin-rich, experience, I could listen to 'Strawbery Fields Forever'. But 'Flower of Scotland'? Nah, pass the herbicide.Suhayl Saadihttp://www.josephsbox.co.uknoreply@blogger.com