When we first started this week and listened to the constructivism podcast, I have to say I was pretty confused. It seemed to cover so much. There was mention of multi-lateral institutions and matters of identity and everything in between. Now that we've talked about it in class it seems to mostly be about identity and how it plays into states' actions and reactions towards other states. It really caused me to reflect on our own identity. It is something I have been concerned about for quite some time now.
In South Florida where I grew up, we have a large mix of just about every ethnicity you could think of. The two largest minorities are Hispanics and Blacks. We have serious identity issues in South Florida. Kids walk around with backpacks that have the Venezuelan, Colombian, Puerto Rican, Haitian, etc... flag on them. Even though most have limited knowledge about world affairs they would often discuss how much they think America is terrible and they wish they could go back to their own country. Part of this is just ignorance and maybe a lot of it is the current economic situation. This is not something that is going to help our nation in the future. We need people who are going to care about what happens here and want to make a difference. There are limited shared values and frankly many of us just don't get along.
There is no appreciation for our nation and those that sacrifice to make the life we enjoy possible. This is not just among the minorities from abroad however, which is even more disturbing. It is the average wasp too. They would say the pledge over the intercom and no one would stand up and say it except for me. Not because they disagreed with it, but because they were too darn lazy to stand up and say it. Some would dismiss this and say they were doing out of some sort of self-righteous disagreement of American policy but that was just an excuse. I would end up shaming people including teachers into standing up and saying it. The teacher who is supposed to be an example to others just sat there, surfing the web while the pledge was going on. This is main reason why we will be surpassed by other nations like China who have much more nationalistic pride than us.
I will end this with an example demonstrating why the demise of our nation could occur. My philosophy teacher asked the class after we watched Saving Private Ryan, "Let's just say hypothetically if China attacked us on our turf, who would sign up and join to fight them?" I raised my hand, a sort of aggressiveness building in me already even though it was hypothetical. I looked around and realized I was the only one in the class of thirty except for one other kid. I looked at the teacher in desperation. He said, "Yeah, I don't think I would either. I'd probably run and take it easy until it blew over or something." This was disgraceful, disgusting, and disturbing to me. Imagine if the world had said that about the expansion of Nazi Germany. We'd all be speaking German right now. Fortunately I feel that this culture of thinking and acting is limited to areas like South Florida. I guess the question is, is this lack of identity and pride a result of the enormous diversity or is it some other factor at play?
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