Josh Karthikeyan Week 8 - America: Nations in A Nation
If California, the state we live in, broke off from the United States, and was its own country, it would then be the fourth largest economy in the entire world. The fact that California, only a single state out of 50 total, is this important to the Union is incredible to me.
California feels like a unique place compared to the rest of America where people have different ideologies. By splitting up America into 50 different, individual states, it leads to a nation where people have different cultural backgrounds but also spreads division.
For example, a person from California and a person from Texas likely has different political, religious, and ideological beliefs overall. Although the difference in beliefs is normal and even healthy, it is human nature to not become as close with people who share different beliefs and instead focus on people who share similar lifestyles. The aftermath leads to bubbles of people who likely share some commonality, leading to less compromises in beliefs.
It is important to realize this because in the current political climate, there is no compromise and groups do not try to work out their issues. Instead, they only focus on their own political agenda, never trying to work together. The government shutdown is the biggest demonstration of this where polarizing beliefs led to worse outcomes for the people of America.
There are many people who are state first, nation second. These groups of people focus on their individual state and are overly loyal to it, hurting the connection to the Union and how every person is an American because they live in America -- any of the 50 total states.
This kind of secluded thinking is a problem to create national identity. We lose patriotism and our love of the country when the most important part, the people, do not care to prioritize America. Some believe that because different states have different cultures, these people do not share similarities to other states, creating a sectional divide.
In conclusion, the cultural differences are a byproduct of the arbitrary lines we draw to separate the country into numerous states, and it leaves an unintended effect of losing unity. As time progresses, our sense of national identity dwindles into individualistic, state identity.
Image by Ryan A. Hughes via Bull Oak
I think it's very interesting that you talk about the fact that secluded thinking (when people only focus on their individual state) hurts national identity. Since all of these individuals only think about themselves or what's directly around them, they never really consider the country as a whole. I think what plays a big part in this is that each states is do divided, and generally secluded to itself. Many individuals also simply don't care what happens to others around them as long as it doesn't affect them. However, certain things will eventually affect them, and certain problem are in fact the same in multiple states. It's been a while since I've seen the country truly think or feel together as one, and honestly, I don't see that happening in the near future. People will always be divided, whether it's because of their personal beliefs or for ignorance. The consequences of this division affects everyone as you mention, including the recent government shutdown. I absolutely agree that as time progresses, the lines drawn between states will only grow wider, causing national identity to "dwindle" down to individualistic state identity. We can only hope that our country takes a turn in the right direction for the future generation.
ReplyDeleteHi, Josh. I agree how each state has its own little enclave despite being part of one country. I think some states themselves could compete with the big bald eagle and Fourth of July type patriotism of America as a whole. You mentioned Texas, which I think has a lot of state patriotism, as well as New York, California, and Florida. Also, some states have their own specific branding, like Utah as Mormons and Nevada as Vegas (at least to me). Your point about how there “are many people who are state first, nation second” stood out to me because, especially as of late, there has been a lot of controversy about how some government officials are more loyal to a foreign “state” rather than the United States. And I would agree that this does not "prioritize America.” If some of the government isn’t prioritizing America, that obviously means American people aren’t being prioritized either. Also, while looking at your attached photo, I was a little shocked. I’ve been aware that California by itself has the fourth largest economy in the world, but I never considered that meant it ranked higher than places like India, which has almost 36.5 times the population as California!
ReplyDeleteHi Josh. This sectionalism that you point out is something that happened before in American history. During the Civil War era, the North and South both identified as their own separate areas. This sectionalism got so severe that the South eventually seceded from the North because of the different economic and ideologies that they had. Even though I highly doubt this would ever happen again, it still brings other consequences of sectionalism. California being the worlds 4th largest economy is crazy as it is competing against world stage countries while not even being a country. Conflict between California and other states to almost seem to evident because of its powerful economy.
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