Here's a paradox for you: I love the United States of America. I love the topography. You know: purple mountains majesty, fruited plains and what have you. I love the system of government that was created for it. I love it's Constitution and particularly the Bill of Rights. I love America with much, if not all, of my heart. But I don't consider myself an American. Perhaps politically I am. If I were to go another country I would be considered an American due to my US citizenship but I don't identify myself specifically as an "American." To see why I'm on this topic take a listen to this news piece from NPR's "Morning Edition" for context: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121986877
Briefly, in this piece NPR speaks with Stanford professor Clifford Nass who suggests that due to the increased number of media outlets ranging from the hundreds of television channels available to the on-demand style entertainment available from the internet and pay services that America is losing the identifiers that help define our culture. Americans are becoming disconnected from each other because people are able to get media that is more specialized to their interests rather than sharing ubiquitous cultural reference points. For Nass this is especially problematic because it means that a fractured society is less capable of being mobilized. Although it is unclear whether this is Nass' sentiment or "Morning Edition's" this mobilization may include issues like health care reform and opposition to war. I suspect they wouldn't have an issue if this interfered with the mobilization of something conservatives advocate like the Tea Parties but who's counting?
So the question becomes, what does this have to do with Chuck not being an American? Everything. Everyone of us is gains a more global cultural perspective because of this access to media. I imagine that all of us have seen a movie or TV show from both Japan and England, if not dozens from each. Admittedly these countries are known for their overwhelming cultural output but the fact that we can all access the internet right now to obtain artifacts from these and many other countries shows us that national identity is slipping away because we are individually and societally dissolving these boundaries. Morally and socially I value my indviduality with higher degree than any group identity but if I must identify with a group it is as human of the planet Earth, not just a taxpayer of the United States.
Due to the great circumstances with which I live I may superficially have more in common with a woman from Texas than I do a man from Laos but when it comes to my concern for others "my people" are the inhabitants of Earth without regard to their nationality or ethnicity. What is most important to me are the things that I have in common with people everywhere: the love of my family and my friends, providing the best life I can for myself and those in my care, having sex, and, well, I guess having sex. Humans don't need to identify with their immediate neighbors to be mobilized to stop war. They simply need to realize that war is violent force being used on their long distance neighbors and that the politicians and governments that use war as a tool of tyranny rely on us embracing arbitrary distinctions between groups like nationality.
Here's a fun game you can share with your kids: the next time you hear a politician make reference to "American people" replace it with "American pawns" and see how the meaning changes. Is he or she talking about the individuals who are the citizens of the United States or a faceless, manipulated crowd being forced to follow the will of a power elite? For bonus points you can see if it works when other international "leaders" do the same thing!
