Cultural Citizenship
An alternative form of government made possible by the internet
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
We have grown accustomed to thinking of the U.S. as a melting pot, with people from many different cultural backgrounds. But the same is true of other countries around the world. Many people feel a dissociation between their cultural identity and the political entity that rules the geographic area where they happen to live. This dissociation leads to feelings of isolation, of being out-siders, of not belonging. Where cultural minorities are large enough, that dissociation can lead to political unrest, rebellion, and civil war.
We increasingly find ourselves with two or more identities — the bonds that arise from where we are physically located and the bonds that arise from our cultural background and beliefs. Now that the Internet reaches all countries and is available to the many, rather than the elite few, it’s time to consider the opportunities this communications capability opens for changing our concepts of what constitutes a government and what its role should be.
One possibility would be to recognize cultural citizenship in addition to geographic citizenship.
I was born in the United States and live here and pay taxes here and vote here. But I may feel I have a cultural identity that is German or Irish or Scottish or Italian. Someone who lives in Israel may feel cultural allegiance to Judaism or to the Arabic world.
Consider the possibilities. Say that you have the opportunity to declare your cultural citizenship. Then say that some part of the taxes collected from you goes to support an organizational entity devoted to your chosen culture, and you have the right to vote to determine the leadership and direction of that cultural entity. Then in a country with many cultures, no single culture would be the winner and all the others losers or minorities. Regardless of where you live, you would belong to the culture of your choice and could contribute toward the preservation of its traditions and help decide the direction of its future development.
This virtual, cultural citizenship need not be limited to ethnic or religious or other pre-existing cultures. People should be able to belong to whatever cultural entities they wish, including newly created ones, based on common interests. And cultural citizenship need not be all-or-nothing. Imagine you could, for example, choose to be 60% German, 20% Turkish, 10% Argentinian, 10% Mormon Church. In that case, the culture-related taxes and related voting rights would be similarly divided.
The infrastructure and the habits of behavior supported by the Internet make this bizarre notion possible. Would it be desirable? How might it work? And how might we get from here to there?
