سوئٹرزلینڈ فورم < Why is it so hard to make friends in Switzerland??

  • جائیں اس یوزر کےRoger B's پروفائل پر

    Can't realy agree

    پوسٹڈ بايئ  Roger B انرر سوئٹرزلینڈ فورم 

    I'm sorry but that's just a bit too much taking the nominal for the real value. Much of what you describe is not a "true" attitude but more a way to make fun of each other. Stereotyping each other is like a national sport, but no one, and I need to know because I'm on of those apparently so despised "Zürcher", really takes the things dead seariously (it's teasing each other, nothing more). You can't realy derive any meaningful conclusion out of that particular phenomenon.

    And saying that we define us from what we leave out, while having certainly some currency when it comes to sports or any competition, can certainly not be extended to culture in general. In Switzerland, a lot of things work differently than say in Germany, and on a pure material, countable aspect it might even be safe to say, "better" than in most neighbouring countries, and this gives som of us some pride.

    And finaly, I am not all that sure if there really is so much a difference between Switzerland and other countries when it comes to questions of center vs. periphery and majority vs. minority etc. I mean, the Quebecois are also quite fixed on their identity, the Southerners in the US also put a premium on their heritage and last but not least, the Scots don't want to be mistaken for Englishmen... I think we could expand that little list to eternity and beyond.

    In my opinion, what this really tells us is that perceived identity really is dependent on the situation you are in. If we go with Amartya Sen, no person has only one identity, we're multi-identical people. To make a somewhat general example: If I am in the US, I am a European, if I am somewhere in Europe, I'm Swiss, if I am in Switzerland I'm a Zürcher and finally to break it further down, if I'm in Zürich I'm an Oberländer. We are multi-layered. We could even expand that to include football clubs, politics or type of food we like. So making general statements about where the Swiss do derive there identity from are quite hard to make, as it depends really on both circumstance and perspective.

    Now, my statement might be somewhat off-topic, but I really think one should not put too much currency into the "Kantönligeist" and assorted topics.

جواب پوسٹ کریں

دوسرے جوابات