Post by Ián Tamorán S.H. on Oct 13, 2014 8:07:04 GMT -6
Philosophers often ask what, at first, seem to be silly questions. I have declared myself to be the Proud Philosopher of Talossa – so here goes:
Before we produce three hundred different answers to that question [please can somebody find me the Talossan equivalent of “two Jews, three opinions”?] let me explore the question a little:
Is a country a group of people united by living in one place?
Well, No. Many Jews, worldwide consider Israel to be their home, even though they have never actually been there. [Important note: I am not here intending to open up a discussion on the Palestine/Israel question – important though that is – I am merely using it as an example].
And also many people living in one place may view themselves as belonging to different countries – one of the many reasons why, historically, countries have split.
So land, by itself, does not have it.
Is a country a group of people united by speaking one language?
Again, No. Not everyone in England speaks English – and my Welsh friends may declare themselves to be staunchly citizens of the U.K., but to prefer speaking Welsh (an older language, by the way, than English). Belgium is another (and better) example of a split-language nation.
So language, by itself, does not have it.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same cuisine?
Still, No. If you have visited France you already know that each part of France cooks and eats differently. The USA has many different sorts of cooking in its various regions. And – to pile on complexity – there are French cooks in New York, and American hamburgers in Paris.
So food, by itself, does not have it.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same laws?
Aha! – that must be it... Oh, No – it isn’t. In the U.K., for example, there are at least two different major sets of laws which may apply – the laws of Scotland, and the laws of England and Wales. There are also legal differences – different laws – in (for example) the island of Sark, the Isle of Man, and Northern Ireland... but all of these places are part of the U.K. In the USA there are different electoral laws in the different states – electoral laws conceding the central government.
So unity of laws does not, by itself, have it.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same religion?
No – we know that not to be the case. Many may share the same religion, but a country is more varied than that – and different from that.
A country is not a religion.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same jokes?
Have I gone mad [rhetorical question
] ? But there’s some merit in this – every Englishman knows jokes about the Scots being mean, and the Irish being stupid, so that’s a unifying factor, isn’t it? Well, No, it isn’t: those same jokes are told by the Scots about the English and the Islanders, and my Irish family tell the same jokes, but substituting Jews and Kerrymen as the stereotypes. “Did you hear the one about the <stereotype> that walked into the <stereotype>?...”
And if we look at better jokes – jokes that do not demean other human groups out of prejudice – these do translate between languages and between cultures. Anyway, what makes me laugh does not always make my wife laugh, and vice versa.
So jokes do not have it.
But I have just used the word “culture”. Perhaps that’s it – a country is a group of people sharing the same culture?
Yet again, No. For there is no single demarcable entity which can be identified as the culture of any country. The U.K. does have a culture – there is music, there is poetry, there is dance, there is painting, there is cinema, there is land, language, cuisine and laws – but it hard – nay, impossible – to say which of these are essential to UK culture and which are not. French culture is different from UK culture, but shares many things with it.
So culture, by itself, does not have it.
But we are, perhaps, here closer to an answer: a country is not defined by any of these things, but each of these things is important to it. A country must have a land, a language, a law, and to flourish it must have a cuisine, jokes, and art.
And to really flourish it must have freedom.
So what have we got in Talossa?
We have a land – a land in several stretches. We have a language – almost unique to us. We have a law – though with disagreements about what exactly that law is or was or should be. We have a currency and a cuisine (in our case, these overlap!), we have purely Talossan jokes (I’ll mick that!) and admiration of specific art (Turkish Star Wars?
).
Do we have a free land, a free language, a free law? Do we have a free cuisine, free jokes and free art? Do we have religious freedom?
In my opinion, we do have all of these freedoms – but we should all remember that in this (as in other) countries, those freedoms must be attentively protected.
So though land, language, law, cuisine, jokes art and I wot not else are all there, no one of these is the centre of Talossa, our country. But – undeniably – Talossa exists.
So, back to my original question – the question from a mad – and proud – philosopher:
Maybe it’s not such a silly question after all.
What is a country?
Before we produce three hundred different answers to that question [please can somebody find me the Talossan equivalent of “two Jews, three opinions”?] let me explore the question a little:
Is a country a group of people united by living in one place?
Well, No. Many Jews, worldwide consider Israel to be their home, even though they have never actually been there. [Important note: I am not here intending to open up a discussion on the Palestine/Israel question – important though that is – I am merely using it as an example].
And also many people living in one place may view themselves as belonging to different countries – one of the many reasons why, historically, countries have split.
So land, by itself, does not have it.
Is a country a group of people united by speaking one language?
Again, No. Not everyone in England speaks English – and my Welsh friends may declare themselves to be staunchly citizens of the U.K., but to prefer speaking Welsh (an older language, by the way, than English). Belgium is another (and better) example of a split-language nation.
So language, by itself, does not have it.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same cuisine?
Still, No. If you have visited France you already know that each part of France cooks and eats differently. The USA has many different sorts of cooking in its various regions. And – to pile on complexity – there are French cooks in New York, and American hamburgers in Paris.
So food, by itself, does not have it.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same laws?
Aha! – that must be it... Oh, No – it isn’t. In the U.K., for example, there are at least two different major sets of laws which may apply – the laws of Scotland, and the laws of England and Wales. There are also legal differences – different laws – in (for example) the island of Sark, the Isle of Man, and Northern Ireland... but all of these places are part of the U.K. In the USA there are different electoral laws in the different states – electoral laws conceding the central government.
So unity of laws does not, by itself, have it.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same religion?
No – we know that not to be the case. Many may share the same religion, but a country is more varied than that – and different from that.
A country is not a religion.
Is a country a group of people sharing the same jokes?
Have I gone mad [rhetorical question
] ? But there’s some merit in this – every Englishman knows jokes about the Scots being mean, and the Irish being stupid, so that’s a unifying factor, isn’t it? Well, No, it isn’t: those same jokes are told by the Scots about the English and the Islanders, and my Irish family tell the same jokes, but substituting Jews and Kerrymen as the stereotypes. “Did you hear the one about the <stereotype> that walked into the <stereotype>?...”And if we look at better jokes – jokes that do not demean other human groups out of prejudice – these do translate between languages and between cultures. Anyway, what makes me laugh does not always make my wife laugh, and vice versa.
So jokes do not have it.
But I have just used the word “culture”. Perhaps that’s it – a country is a group of people sharing the same culture?
Yet again, No. For there is no single demarcable entity which can be identified as the culture of any country. The U.K. does have a culture – there is music, there is poetry, there is dance, there is painting, there is cinema, there is land, language, cuisine and laws – but it hard – nay, impossible – to say which of these are essential to UK culture and which are not. French culture is different from UK culture, but shares many things with it.
So culture, by itself, does not have it.
But we are, perhaps, here closer to an answer: a country is not defined by any of these things, but each of these things is important to it. A country must have a land, a language, a law, and to flourish it must have a cuisine, jokes, and art.
And to really flourish it must have freedom.
So what have we got in Talossa?
We have a land – a land in several stretches. We have a language – almost unique to us. We have a law – though with disagreements about what exactly that law is or was or should be. We have a currency and a cuisine (in our case, these overlap!), we have purely Talossan jokes (I’ll mick that!) and admiration of specific art (Turkish Star Wars?
).Do we have a free land, a free language, a free law? Do we have a free cuisine, free jokes and free art? Do we have religious freedom?
In my opinion, we do have all of these freedoms – but we should all remember that in this (as in other) countries, those freedoms must be attentively protected.
So though land, language, law, cuisine, jokes art and I wot not else are all there, no one of these is the centre of Talossa, our country. But – undeniably – Talossa exists.
So, back to my original question – the question from a mad – and proud – philosopher:
What is a country?
Maybe it’s not such a silly question after all.
"Ceterum censeo republicam proclamandum esse."
