It’s important to be able to laugh at ourselves and each other!

Patriotism

When you begin to think about it, patriotism is a strange concept, which has been the source of many wars since history began. So what is all this obsessively patriotic behaviour about? Why do we always want more land than our neighbours? Why do we always think that our songs are better than our neighbours? Why do we think that everything in our culture is better than our neighbours? Sometimes arrogance comes from ignorance, because it’s easier to hate than to learn to understand. Geographically speaking, some cultures have developed at a great distance from each other under varying conditions creating a gap between everyday ideas. This makes it difficult for us to understand the things our neighbours find normal, such as a type of breakfast cuisine, a style of dancing or the methods of greeting one another.

Of course there are different scales of patriotism depending on the nation in question. Some nations certainly have (on a very general basis) more of an arrogant air and less of a desire to integrate on any meaningful level with other nationalities. 

To take some comical examples of nation vs nation. The English complain about the Welsh and their desire to keep alive a dying language, the Welsh pretend they only speak Welsh so as to secretly converse when the English are present. The British hate the French and their lack of resolve, the French think the British have no culture. The Italians hate other nationalities as they believe no-one else understands how to cook properly and other nationalities hate the Italians for their stubborn desire to travel abroad infrequently, speak only Italian and eat only Italian. The English and Irish hate each other but stick together because no-one else laughs at the same jokes.

Some cultures refuse to identify themselves as a culture but rather as 100 different subcultures. They need to identify and define every difference. It’s as if they don’t want friends! This has been the cause of civil wars within nations. Is it necessary? Not really. If you have to identify every difference through names and documentation, then imagine if we were to do that because some of us are blonde and some of us are brunette, some of us have oily skin and some combination skin!

And when you think about the reality of your family tree and how many thousands and thousands of people have married into it and how many descendants there are, how can you honestly think that you come from one place anyway?

Furthermore, when you begin to piece together the history of your own country you soon realise that with all the invasions and colonisations etc… there has never really been one definable historical culture and national identity. What we are standing up for, what we consider to be quintessentially ‘us’ is often a relatively modern identity.

I can’t believe we fight over it. 

Brits abroad!

The term ‘Brits abroad’ is normally coined to describe a certain type of Brit, namely those British with a notorious reputation for their behaviour off the island. Over the past few years, reality TV shows have profiled the antics of these Brits in popular destinations from the Costa del Sol to Magaluf, from Benidorm to the Balearics etc… Brits who probably think the Balearics are positioned somewhere off Southeast Asia .

These locations are chosen due to their uncanny resemblance to popular UK holiday resorts. The entertainment is the same with singers doing a circuit which passes through Skegness, Brighton and the Costa del Sol . The food is the same. The language is the same, even the people are the same. The only difference is the weather…

These destinations tailor-make themselves perfectly to the Brit who wants to remain British in a warmer version of Brighton , albeit with a somewhat dubious measure of a pint. 

In the reality TV shows we’ve seen British men and women openly showing off their intimate regions to the cameras outside bars.

We’ve seen British men and women having competitions over holiday sex.

We’ve seen the British stereotype well versed against the German stereotype. When tanning obsessed Germans reserve all the sun beds by putting their towels on them the night before, of course the British will be there to throw the sun beds and the towels in the pool!

However what these reality shows fail to serialise is the other extreme: British expatriates living in former colonies in the developing countries. Intelligent, well spoken and successful, these expats adhere to social etiquette and frown upon those who don’t. Elitism is high on the agenda. Rudeness and a sense of regal importance are features of everyday life. Alongside this come the many affairs, and the popular sport of swinging. They are possibly just as sex-obsessed and ignorant  as the Kavos partygoers, only richer, quieter and better at pretending they know one end of a lobster from the other.