Dr Atsuko Ichijo, Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Kingston gives her opinions on this issue.
Theresa May recently said in 2016, that “If you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.” In the 1960s and 1970s we fought against the ideas of one country being different from another, we wanted to live in ‘one world.’ To the proposition that this could have paved the way for what was to later become a liberalist ideological globalisation policy, Dr Ichijo says that there was an interest in unifying ideologies in the so called advanced West, but at the same time, there were groups of people who were interested in identity politics and demanding that attention be paid to different mind-sets. She refers to globalization as being more the concern of finance and manufacturing, and not necessarily driven by the idea of living in open world.
Dr Ichijo agrees that living in the 60s and 70s was all about trying to attain happiness and fulfilment immediately, rather than investing in something in the future which is what the ‘establishment’ was perceived to be offering at the time. She sees this was partly possible because of the rising affluence of western economies. To the question of whether there is a link between the need to ‘conform’ and the reappearance of nationalism, Dr Ichijo agrees that there is; in the context of there being a necessity to establish a sense of belonging, in a fast-changing world. This can be seen, she points out, in the recent Brexit referendum in the UK where the areas where the Brexit was strongest, was where people were being forced to change faster than elsewhere, and people need to feel some kind of security.
To the idea that because of the reappearance of nationalism, we are seeing the recreation of the concepts of duty. Dr Ichijo says that, yes, there is a tendency to try to recreate ideas from the past, but at the same time, many people have become rather cynical about the State as such. If the State was to say that people have to die for their country, Dr Ichijo thinks that a large number of people would be rather sceptical.
Many other themes including the whole gender issue are discussed and the final topic discussed concerns whether or not what is happening now will lead to a reaction against nationalism. Dr Ichijo replies that she hopes it does, but we should not be confused about what nationalism is. The Welfare State, she says is an example of the importance of a certain degree of nationalism, for example, and there is nothing wrong with caring for other human beings. There is something wrong, however when nationalism leads to rejection of the ‘other.’
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