Regional nationalisms
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The variety of cultures that can be found in a "country" each of them with its unique traditions, languages, foods... Etc, I think it's often underestimated as this fact represents inmaterial richness that grows naturally from the human race. Something that if one has the intelligence to value makes you understand that every culture is the expression of the people from that specific place, that sometimes little has to do with the nationality they are given when they are born.
I'm not talking about an sub-Saharan immigrant going to a Nordic country of course. I'm talking about the fact that sometimes we don't realise that the majority of countries in the world seem to me perfectly unified in terms of culture and way of living of it's people. But in reality this is just a product of centralization that is an efficient way to control a country. For example in Europe Spain and France are good examples of the "unification" of the land under one culture, one language and one flag. In reality, these countries are segmented in a lot of pieces, ones more culturally and historically sovereign others with less cultural weight but still completely different from what those countries call "nationality"
As nature and God seem to give us endless living beings, each one unique in their own ways, expanding on a net of infinite branches, we human beings tend to do the same in terms of cultural organisation mimicking the natural stream of nature (as above, so below?).
How would humanity evolve if we were loyal to the real distribution of the land, based of culture differences even inside what we know as countries nowadays? Does this go against World Economic Forum plas of unifying everything under one culture, one language and one government?
I think that basing the optic on realising these cultural richness is inmaterial human richness is the main point to value small regions.
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@Martiño
Scale, industrialization, mass media... you name it. Organic ties to the land are extremely weakened. National-centralised cultures have recreated this, have created myths, stories to affirm the hegemony and the culture-confidence of the people at large. The game has been going on for centuries now and for millennia before that.But take todays situation into account. Look at your own (Galician, I suppose) fellowpeople. All the socioeconomic strata heavily influenced in their ways and modes by, let's call It the current American empire. Everywhere the same. Regional or subregional cultures seem to be relegated to smaller portions of life.
I live in a place where, in a metropolitan area of roughly 200 sq km, there are two distinct populations at the ethnic-cultural level. City people vs. descendants of historically small tenants and owners in the countryside. You can see these dynamics all across Europe. Fascinating topic.
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@Caray not a coincidence that you guessed my nationality and find the topic fascinating, it really is. Galicia was the first kingdom to stablish after the fall of Rome, germanic ethnicity, the Suebi. We can say that nowadays we are a colony of Spain (last one was not Cuba) as other nations in Iberia, but this has been harsher in the past, Spanish kingdom always wanted to destroy Galicia based on jealousy of our culture (there are mediaeval documents such as "Taming & castration of the Galician kingdom"). Nowadays our honour still beats inside us because land never forgets, or i should say the sea, as we are also deeply tied to it (Columbus was from here). Dictatorship also destroyed so many things, still i think this is common in all Europe and a cultural renaissance driven by the people is the way to go in my opinion because it is what we are... Other examples Bretagne, Cornwall, Vlanderen (Flanders)... And so on. It's another way of nature expressing itself, this, is the real and convenient diversity. I believe French revolution marked the way to stablish systems and nations as we have to day, "all of this is France" or "all of this is Spain"... Perfect for centralised control of huge masses of people... Deep rabbit hole
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I know how you feel
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@Martiño said in Regional nationalisms:
How would humanity evolve if we were loyal to the real distribution of the land, based of culture differences even inside what we know as countries nowadays?
Hasn't it already done so? I know as a Galician it may not seems so, but the division is inherently arbitrary as you have pointed out by mentioning the uniqueness of each person - should Galicia be an independent nation, or should they be united with Basques and Catalans against Liberals. Liberals, on the other hand, believed in Spanish nationalism, and Russians in unified Slavs, and similarly to a degree Hitler or Napoleon. But which division is right or wrong?
IMO, while not perfect, current division seems quite stable and reasonable.
@Martiño said in Regional nationalisms:
I believe French revolution marked the way to stablish systems and nations as we have to day, "all of this is France" or "all of this is Spain"
Dr. Dutton believes that unification and falling apart of people is related to environmental factors: that in difficult times power lies in groups, nations; while in easy and comfortable ones, the people's differences make them torn asunder. Clearly, man never have lived in more comfortable times and so it makes sense that, safe from dangers of World Wars and Cold War, now seek further and further division.
Ideally, local patriotism should be promoted and cherished, but it should not overshadow the national unity as it will be crucial when difficult times comes; and neither should nationalism stamp out local cultures.
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@zawisza i understand your point of view as i understand that in some cases the most organic and natural way to organise the territory is unifying it. In difficult Times its always the people the ones that buckle up, i dont believe one has to depend on a state, with central government 600km away from you to thrive. In fact, in Spain reality is that the territories that form the peninsula work as colonies for the state, our interests are not the ones they have in Madrid. Therefore, this Brings missery and poor resource management to nations like Galicia. This is a really specific case that can have similarities with other nationalists movements around europe. Spain has never been united in reality, in real life, everyday life anyone that is not biased towards the fake spanish nationalism can realise this, you would be terrified if you knew how things really work in "happy ans sunny" "Spain"
