flying the flag for the world cup?

[mk12]

So when I drive my car with an England flag flying, at that moment in time it is impossible for me to still believe in the overthrow of capital in other countries by their respective working class? Do you not see how stupid this is?

 

[Donna Ferentes]

No, it's stupid not to notice that while of course people can and do believe contradictory things (as I indeed observed only a handful of posts back) they are nevertheless contradictory.

 

[mk12]

Ok - we'll agree to disagree. I am a Nationalist Internationalst

 

[Donna Ferentes]

And indeed, many people are.

I should say the point is not to be Joe Perfect or make a moral critique. Personally I find it very hard not to support the England cricket team or the Great Britain rugby league side. But I don't think either of these things are really compatible with what I think politically. Perhaps they're not important enough to matter: perhaps it's just that the hysteria that surrounds a World Cup is so intense that it's at that point that I find it really matters?

 

[vince noir]

Curiously though, now I live abroad I find myself in an odd position because I'm el inglés whether I like it or not. I don't think this will lead me to support the England team but it does mean I'm coming at the matter from a rather different direction than I'm used to.

I'm Scottish, but I never had any sense of Scottishness until I lived in England for a few years. Like it or not, it became one of the ways in which I was defined... you can either make a show of rejecting it or just let it happen.

I certainly don't think being Scottish makes me any better than anyone else, but leaving the country made me conscious of what was unique about it in that it shaped me in a different way to people from other countries. I don't feel defined by my nationality - it's had far less of an impact than my class, for instance, or my gender - but I don't have a problem celebrating what there is to celebrate about it. None of this stops you pointing out the bad things too (like, for instance, our ability to play football).