The Culture and Politics of Identity: Impression 1

The following is the first in a series of five posts on my impressions about the culture and politics of identity while living in Europe.  None of them are complete thoughts. Instead, they are reactions I had to situations and events during my last two weeks in the UK and France.
 

Impression 1: Should We Stay or Should We Go?

I was sitting at table in the dining hall at Durham University, talking with two colleagues, both of whom are Scotish, born and raised.  They educated me on the latest movement toward seceding from the UK--see, for example, this link.  It is, like most things, complex, nuanced and contradictory.  There is this sense in Scotland, it seems, that the 'Island Story" advanced in the UK is very English oriented--again, this is the impression I got from listening to these stories; they are not my own opinions.

For me, to make sense of their point, I thought of the single "American Dream" story sold in the United States about its history, right?  I interjected into their discussion that the problem with any singular story, as the postmodernists and feminists have taught us, is that it ignores reality.

Truth be told, the history of the UK or the states is complex, with multiple and contested stories, based on the group of individuals about whom you are discussing. Think, for example, of the multiple American Dream stories of African Americans, Polish Americans, Native Americans, Muslim Americans and Mexican Americans, to name a few, right?  In turn, as these two colleagues shared with me, think of the multiple stories of people in the UK: Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English, and, more recently, Indian, Muslim, Northern African.  And, digging even further, there is the longue durée of this Island's history, going back almost 30,000 years, way before the Romans, where one finds all sorts of complex, conflicted intersections between the Celtic peoples (later Britons), Gaelic peoples, Normans (northern French), Vikings, Anglo-Saxons (Germanic tribes), and then, finally, the next few thousand years of Roman and European history.

I in no way pretend to know much about this history. But, my two colleagues at the table did; and they were flying at a breathtaking speed through it all.  As I listened to them, I just sat there thinking of something a local Brit said to me, "In the states you have lots of space, but in the UK we have lots of history!" Boy-oh-boy is that an understatement. And, I will take it one step further.  In the states, we seem uninterested in learning or discussing our history; which, in some ways makes sense, as we don't have castles in our backyard; instead, we have McDonalds and Walmart.  The result, in the states, is that you have all these people complaining because the "elitist liberals" (code for professors who dare to assert their expertise) have the audacity to suggest that American history is, in reality, a complex series of conflicted and contradictory story lines and that students, to be informed citizens, should know this history.

I mean, I will even admit my own ignorance.  I wish I had a grasp on the history of the culture and politics of identity in the United States and its longue duree the way even your average, non elitist, liberal Brit does.  It is impressive.

As a result, the debate in the UK about Scotland seems to be less about the historical record, and more about issues of power: political, economic and cultural.  In other words, the Scots are not trying to set the history books right.  Instead, they are exploring their notions of identity and, in the process, having an internal debate about their shared and distinct political, economic and cultural identity.  My two colleagues at the table made it clear, however, that not all of this "exploration" of identity politics was very healthy or useful, as much of it amounted to a sort of xenophobia of Brits and a false sense of the purity of Scottish identity.

If all goes according to plan, the Scots will, nonetheless, have to make a decision, as they will mostly likely vote, as a country, on the issue of succession in 2014.  In short, in the words of the Clash, the question for the Scots is Should we stay or should we go?