NationStates

Unless you live in Antarctica or Bir Tawil (and if there's any NSers living in those places, say hi), chances are that you live in a country with other people. Countries that have cultures, histories, traditions, governments, and everything else that makes a country a country. Below the countries are regions, which unless you live in Monaco or another tiny country, affect you and your day-to-day life more often than your national government, even if the national government is the one calling all the shots.

No matter if they're nations-within-a-nation like Quebec or Scotland, or if they're completely toothless and meaningless in terms of the political power they exert, like France's regions du jour or the provinces of Zimbabwe, the fact is that regions tend to have their own cultures, or at least something that makes a region more distinct from all the other regions in your country. Maybe it's history, maybe it's food, maybe it's the singing or the dancing. Or maybe it's absolutely nothing at all that distinguishes a given region from the rest of their country.

Given that it is likely that both the country and the region you live in affect your day-to-day life, and help shape who you are, I ask NSG a simple question: do you feel most attached to your country or to your region? Or do you feel attachment to neither of those things, but instead feel some sort of attachment to your continental trading bloc, your ethnicity, or more idealistically, the human race over either of those things?

Personally, I would say that I am most attached to my country, Canada. While I pay much more attention to the affairs of Western Canada (especially my home province of Saskatchewan and Alberta) much more than I would pay attention to the goings-on in the Maritimes, I do not feel particularly attached to the idea of Western Canadian regionalism, not least because the bulk of today's Western Canadian regional identity is centred on "keep the oil industry going" and general opposition to the Trudeaus, even if I will freely admit that Western Canada has been shafted by the eastern provinces, and the relationship could be a bit better between the western and eastern provinces.

I do not feel that Western Canada has much of a distinct identity from the rest of English Canada or the United States save for a few different things here and there (and indeed, I'd argue the South has more differences from the general American culture than Western Canada has with Ontarian or Maritime culture), which also makes me less likely to identify with my region over my country.

Neither. I hate the United States and I hate Texas.

Regions are a Blair-era anachronism that every Labour Party since has clung to. And as a Tory myself...

I am attached to humanity as a whole and to the places I have seen, but not to the "country", because I realized that the "country" is a zone of influence of the ruling elite, this is a manipulative concept. Before my eyes, one country where I lived (the USSR) crumbled, and 15 new countries appeared in its place - during the redistribution of spheres of influence between the ruling bureaucrats. This has not changed the landscapes, flora and fauna of the places where I visited in my youth and with which warm memories are associated - the borders of new countries have passed through them, but the nature of these places has not changed. Social policy and culture have changed, from a socialist course to a bourgeois one - but this is not due to the division into countries, but to the actions of social classes and politicians.

In general, a person with warm nostalgia remembers not "countries", but places where he visited and grew up: his home, then the yard where he played with friends, the streets of his hometown, country trips. This is his direct experience. But he learns about the division into countries and nations, about his belonging to the country, from books, schools and the media - "country" and "nation" are artificial constructs inspired by the authorities, state ministries of education and the press, on behalf of the rulers. However, due to the fact that a person also sees these books and TV shows at an early age, belonging to the country can also be imprinted in his mind, and only subsequently he realizes that he has become a victim of manipulation. If he realizes this, he moves away from national narrowness, and begins to look for a different, supranational unity - with like-minded people, comrades in social status, profession or hobby... finally, with humanity, which sees ideally united. But not everyone goes through such an evolution in the direction of cosmopolitanism.

Tinhampton wrote:Regions are a Blair-era anachronism that every Labour Party since has clung to. And as a Tory myself...

I'd argue that regions don't need to be officially recognised for them to exist at all, so long as the people living in a region consider it to be an actual region. Western Canada is not really an official political entity, and yet, there is a sense of Western Canadian identity that exists among many denizens in Western Canada, especially in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and to a lesser extent in British Columbia and in Manitoba. Same with the South south of the border, where there is no official political entity called the South, but Southerners agree that the South exists.

Sure, without official definitions saying that "X county is in Y region," the borders of regions would be hazy, and people won't agree whether or not X is in Y or Z region, but I don't think it matters for most cases. However, I will say that regions should not be arbitrarily created by some distant bureaucrat who has zero understanding of the culture and traditions of the people living there, but it should organically develop.

i am an iowan nationalist so you could say that i am more attached to iowa than the united states, i believe that iowa should secede because globalism and satanism has taken control of this country and patriotic state governments need to leave the collapsing republic

I tend to pretty evenly feel attached to my region of Northern California, state of California, and country of the United States.

Of the three, I’d probably ultimately go with the third, although on a day-to-day basis it would generally be the first.

Stellar Colonies wrote:I tend to pretty evenly feel attached to my region of Northern California, state of California, and country of the United States.

Of the three, I’d probably ultimately go with the third, although on a day-to-day basis it would generally be the first.

This.
It all depends on at what level you have to represent at the time.

In terms of cultural identity? Neither. Idealistically I'm a human being first and foremost. After that I'm a citizen in a high-income democracy.

I live in a well-centralised state with a unified government, so practically the national government has much more power over my daily life than any of the regional/local administrations do (the national government, for example, subsidises my healthcare and my education). I wouldn't say that I feel any particular cultural affinity to either my region or my country, though.

Utah is great. The USA sucks right now.

Honestly the only reason I'm more attached to Ohio then the Greater United States is because I feel like one bones me slightly less then the other.

Texan here. As a descendent of Mexican immigrants, I do feel heavily connected to México and pay attention to what goes on there closely.

I feel better connected to both the U.S and Mexico, mainly because of lineage, being born in the U.S, and the desire to see both nations get out of the instability they are marred and consumed by. I focus less on regions or my state. I view regionalism as a divisive factor at times.

Other:
St. Louis City is what I Identify with. CITY BOIZ RISE UP!

I generally identify with the region more, but I will identify with everywhere I've lived so it gets closer to country with time.

I feel more attached to my region, the Pacific Northwest than I am to my Country. Not because I hate it, but it is more on my feelings and adaptation to the PNW. It has a different climate, culture than it is to the Rest of the US and acts more leftist than other portions of the country.

Also Not FNU wrote:Honestly the only reason I'm more attached to Ohio then the Greater United States is because I feel like one bones me slightly less then the other.

I understand that feeling completely: if my provincial government were slightly less incompetent (and also more aligned with my ideology) and the federal government a bit more incompetent (and less aligned with my ideology), I'd probably be much more attached to Saskatchewan, and as is, I feel that, warts and all, Saskatchewan is worth fighting for enough for me to buy an NDP membership and get involved with the provincial NDP.

However, I don't really consider Saskatchewan to be an actual region in and of itself, given it shares a lot of its traits with Alberta and Manitoba. If I did, I think my answer in my OP would be slightly different: I'd still be attached to Canada, but my Saskatchewanian identity is pretty high even if I'm not fond of the way Saskatchewan has been going since I was in elementary school.

Region with some huge cavets.

I do love love our food nd our sports team..but any government...nah.

Yes.

I have lived in Singapore far longer than in Burma at this point. And yet, many a times, I really want to go back to Burma because I love my motherland.

To be absolutely clear with no hint of doubt or uncertainty, I hate the coup, the way we treated the Rohingya, and many more we have done along the way. I can only hope that we can get better as a whole, and I just want to go back and enjoy both the urban and natural environment that Burma has to offer.

Shermania wrote:Yes.

I'd have to pick my county, if anything. It's where my friends and family are, anywhere else can be nuked and I will probably be impartial to it, as long as those I know are safe. I don't care about the safety of anyone outside of what I generally refer to as my "tribe", and i certainly don't expect them to care about my safety either. I often fantasize about the world belonging just to those within my group, and everyone else simply never existed in the first place.

I do care about what's going on in ukraine. I know ukrainians and russians and just wish for peace in that regions. I've never felt quite understood by any given group except for those ive met, from there, online. I'm concerned about the safety and wellbeing of my friends in these places.

This is a really good question that I'm not sure I can actually answer because my own circumstances are so complex.

For example, I've never really had much of a sense of national identity. I was born in the UK and grew up split between England and New Zealand but was never really able to identify with either society. Basically I'm too British to call myself a Kiwi, but also too Kiwi to call myself British.

As for regions, again it's complicated because I spent a third of my life in Auckland, a third in the south island (where I currently live) and a third in either Britain or elsewhere.

Recently I moved back to the south island after living in Auckland and I am noticing gigantic cultural, political and even ethnic differences - and I'm starting to identify more with the former than the latter mainly because I'm a bit more conservative than the average Aucklander. However even then, I'm not quite a south islander because... I mean for one, I read and enjoy intellectual conversations rather than sticking my hands into the back ends of sheep.

It's even more complicated if we start talking about British regionalism because I was born in Belfast (thus making me Northern Irish) but spent my early years in Burnley (don't remember it) and on a British military base in Germany (remember it vaguely), while the remainder of my childhood in Britain (especially the late 90s) was spent in London, as were the adult years that I lived there.

I guess the moral of the story is that I'm an alien and wherever I go, I don't fit in and I don't have any attachment to any society because I've always been an outsider.

Theodores Tomfooleries wrote:Neither. I hate the United States and I hate Texas.

same, except CT.

Neither. I’m attached to people rather than geography.

If I had to pick one, I guess I’d go with region. Wherever all my family and close friends live. I have no plans to resettle elsewhere in the country or abroad - tried living the expat life for a while and couldn’t hack it.

Tangatarehua wrote:This is a really good question that I'm not sure I can actually answer because my own circumstances are so complex.

For example, I've never really had much of a sense of national identity. I was born in the UK and grew up split between England and New Zealand but was never really able to identify with either society. Basically I'm too British to call myself a Kiwi, but also too Kiwi to call myself British.

As for regions, again it's complicated because I spent a third of my life in Auckland, a third in the south island (where I currently live) and a third in either Britain or elsewhere.

Recently I moved back to the south island after living in Auckland and I am noticing gigantic cultural, political and even ethnic differences - and I'm starting to identify more with the former than the latter mainly because I'm a bit more conservative than the average Aucklander. However even then, I'm not quite a south islander because... I mean for one, I read and enjoy intellectual conversations rather than sticking my hands into the back ends of sheep.

It's even more complicated if we start talking about British regionalism because I was born in Belfast (thus making me Northern Irish) but spent my early years in Burnley (don't remember it) and on a British military base in Germany (remember it vaguely), while the remainder of my childhood in Britain (especially the late 90s) was spent in London, as were the adult years that I lived there.

I guess the moral of the story is that I'm an alien and wherever I go, I don't fit in and I don't have any attachment to any society because I've always been an outsider.

You have a very interesting life story and people who move around a lot during their formative years often lack that strong sense of identity attached to any one place (for better or for worse, depending on how you look at it). I’m the same way so now I tend to identify more with the people in my life than any one particular place.