The Longing to Belong
Countries are very, very large tribes.
Countries are a man-made concept that people wholeheartedly identify with. The country, its culture and politics become part of who they are, it affects their personality. People miss their country when away from it. And when away, they gravitate to others from the same country. People are emotionally bound to their countries, they will defend it, die for it.
It is natural to want to belong to something. We are inherently tribal. We yearn to identify and give loyalty. But this longing to belong deceives us into patriotism.
Countries are too large.
Countries need to be fed and then when satisfied made exclusive.
Countries do not occur naturally.
They are a meshing and mashing of related tribes (mostly due to geography) into one concept, one culture, one language, often one religion. Sometimes through colonization, other times through bringing together for political and financial gain. Power.
But does this combining of smaller parts lock easily into a smoothly functioning whole?
For example, in Germany Bavarians see themselves as separate from the rest of Germany, different, better. The Basque fight for independence from Spain. In the UK there is the question of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland. In France there is Brittany. Its confusing and complicated, with some regions having some form of incomplete autonomy and others utterly disregarded by the centralized power. Even in the US with its grand mixing and discarding of European cultures, even there after the loss of European languages and ancestral ways, the West competes with the East, the South flies its own flag.
Countries are over simplified yet cause complications.
Countries are diversity of language withering under the threat of the pervasive hold of the enforced, national language.
Countries are one, official, well spoken language that people immediately drop as they revert naturally to the vernacular and colloquialisms of their home region.
Countries are diversity flattened into uniformity. Families binding together to form a tribe is about as much as our minds and hearts can and should handle.
As said, countries are too large, even the smallest country's political setup likely makes it difficult for the citizens to keep an eye on the leader. The head of the country becomes removed from the masses that make up the body, there is no personal connection to their real needs and problems. This gives way to corruption and all its varied yet practically identical political ideologies, the isms.
Countries thrive on indoctrination not initiation. Thus manipulating allegiance.
Within countries we anyway break off into more manageable groups, we gravitate to groups that make us feel like we truly belong, narrow it down into smaller parts in this too vast land called country. We split off into groups defined by our interests, our profession, our sport, our team, our politics, our gender, films we like, music, style, status, race, sexual orientation. Our spiritual beliefs. We show allegiance to certain restaurants, cars, technology.
In Ireland the accent changes from village to village and rivalry thrives based on several miles and invisible but old boundaries. Identification brought back to the tribal.
Countries are usually based on racial bloodlines.
An illusion of purity.
