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I think you are trying to hard to analyse something.
There is only shared history, nothing else. Maybe you and I do not have all the details of every event but they are all part of our past and each event impacts on another. There is more which unites than divides. You seem to be looking for the divisions.
Sure my view of (to maintain an example) the slave trade may not be the same as someone from Ghana, but it is shared all the same.
You and I have a shared history, but we have difference perspectives on many events.
You said "You never heard the saying "history is written by the winners"?" but that's bunkum. History is written by those involved and by those who later analyse it - as any historian will tell you.
Your country isn't defined by those in power. It's the legacy of the people who fought for the creation and preservation of the country. That's why Beckett, Parnell, Connolly, Joyce, Pearse and Griffith have always intrigued me.
You think culture is some new fad, a tanscient entity, defined by those in power? If you do then you're an idiot.
You don't know much about history, critical theory or philosophies of knowledge I guess. There is never just one version of history - there are different histories - as any historian will tell you. For example, E P Thompson's "The Making of the English Working Class" is a different history from what you get taught in school. We construct meanings from history and the meanings we construct are contingent on our perspectives. These things need to be analysed because they're far from straightforward.
Stop constructing ridiculous straw men.
I didn't say it was. What I am doing is asking questions as to who gets to define a country's culture. You don't seem to have ever given it any thought.
I never said that there was one version of history. I said there is just one history. Different things.
Which was kind of my point, it's the same history, from different perspective.
I also believe in Britain, despite its now crumbling position into seperate Nations, as opposed to a united union of countries.
If a threat were to come to Britain/England i would fight to protect my Country.
However, that does not mean i would happily sign up into the armed forces to go and fight in any war against anyone. Or stand by what ever Prime Minister we have at any given time. I would have happily gone to war for Churchill in World War 2 and happily did all i could for my country in the Cold War. But i wouldnt die for my country during an invasion of another Nation.
Not once have I said I that I was British. :thumb:
And like I said, being British or German or French is a matter of nationalism, not patriotism. Although being patriotic can mean that you are proud of being British, but not the other way around.
Who do you think defines it? It's the people of course.
Well seeing as we can never know for sure what happened in the past because all the evidence we have is filtered through different people's perspectives, it amounts to the same thing. History does not have a fixed meaning - it is contingent on perspective and is constantly being re-written.
:banghead:
Which people? Do they all have equal say?
Who decides what "bettering my Nation" means?
I was using "British" as an example.
Equal say in what? You trying to say Governments make up culture or something? It's something you can't explain, only experience it.
Its quite a simple question. Who gets to determine what is culturally relevant?
Whoever wants it to be culturally relevant. I'm sure a first generation Nigerian here won't be as enthused about Irish Traditional music as I would, still doesn't mean for a country that Irish Traditional music is culturally relevant.
So everyone has equal power do they?
I don't get you. Could you please elaborate?
Its a simple question. I can't put it any more simply. What determines which things become culturally relevant? Don't just say "the people". Which people?
I've heard of Gramsci.
No, but I'm doing a module on social and cultural contours of Europe this semester so I might learn something there.
So you're familiar with the concept of hegemony?
Get hold of this book
The people who partake in activities that are unique to that country, and those who can appreciate that uniqueness.
Yes. Political hegemony anyway.
:banghead:
Which people?
If you're familiar with the concept of hegemony, then you must have thought about the questions I'm asking, surely?
Ok you win. It's hegemony.