How Do Californians Identify With a Country That Doesn’t Share Our Beliefs?
Largely speaking, California does not agree with the rest of the country. If the heavy environmental policies, legalized weed, and pro-immigrant policies didn’t clue you in, maybe the study that found that California is the second least patriotic state in the country might. As Californians’ ideals pull further away from the mean, fewer and fewer Californians actually identify as American, unable to see themselves reflected in the US’s behavior. However, due to the inherent reciprocality of national citizenship, I will make the case that national identity has less to do with agreeing with your country’s past actions or current beliefs, and more to do with agreeing to push forward toward goodness with your fellow citizens.
Those who kneel during the national anthem or find it difficult to celebrate the Fourth of July are correct: the US has gaping social and political issues, and they used to be way worse. But I beg these people to reconsider what people are doing when they put their hands over their hearts or set off fireworks. Are they celebrating racially-charged police brutality or minimizing the impact of Native American genocide? Somehow, when you see the family barbequing in their flag tank tops on the patio, it doesn’t seem that way. Actually, they aren’t celebrating anything in particular (besides 200-year-old independence), but instead rejoicing in the ideals America strives for: liberty for all, we the people, all men created equal. The basic stuff. Even they don’t agree with everything the US has ever done. And they shouldn’t have to. Because national identity is not an end in itself — it has direction.
Think about it; why would identifying nationally mean you have to be okay with what the US is currently? Isn’t it the opposite? Shouldn’t we be identifying as a participant in a system working toward a better future? Once you start looking at America as a process instead of a static “thing,” you see that patriotism is not some elaborate government brainwashing that keeps us from questioning authority, but instead a vital first step to working together toward the common good. Californians need not pick up their longboards and distance themselves from the nation as a whole; in order for the US to catch up to Californian progressiveness, Californians have to identify as part of the US.
But even if I’ve halfway convinced you that national citizenship is about agreeing to work to make the country better rather than identify with it how it is, someone could point out that there is no clear reason why this can’t extend to global citizenship as well. If, to use a physics metaphor, we’re attaching ourselves to the velocity of an object instead of its position, why limit your empathy to the US?
Okay, you know what? Yes. You’re right. National identity may inherently have some in-group/out-group tendencies. You don’t go to the olympics to cheer on every team. But I want to interrogate the idea that they are equally effective, both in getting people to care and in getting people to act upon that care.
What I mean: There’s a difference between care based in empathy and care based in reciprocality. To empathize with someone is to feel what they are feeling, right? We know this. You give to Partners in Health so they can give clean water to people in Africa because you can imagine how hard it is to not have access to clean water. Great. Good. You’re a good person. Reciprocality, though, is based on stuff that happened earlier. For example, if I bought you lunch last week, you might be inclined to do so this week. Help based in empathy is charity, but reciprocality is a mutual dependence.
It’s this reciprocality that gives national citizenship it’s actionability. Even if you despise the US’s foreign policy or lack of universal healthcare, you have benefited directly from governmental action. If you’ve gone to public school, or hiked in a national park, or enjoyed the pleasure of driving without having to bring your own road, the US has provided for you. It is on the back of these gifts that your country asks for your participation as a citizen. It’s not opting into blue-pilled bliss, it’s acknowledging that this is a mutual relationship. Surely this is more reason to identify with your country than a vague, spiritual connection with mankind.
And by extension, isn’t it true that there are more concrete actions you can take as a member of your country than as a citizen of the world? As a US citizen, you can vote intelligently. You can volunteer around your community. You can inform yourself on current events to know how to help. And not only can you do these things, but you are expected to, because of the reciprocal nature of national identity. Global citizenship is a healthy mindset, but being a US citizen is actionable.
I will venture to say that this idea of “attaching yourself not to the country as it is but to the process of making it better” is only applicable to national identity, given the routes you have to take action. So the argument that what I’m talking about here also applies to people who consider themselves Citizens Of The World doesn’t work. Our relationship to the US is specific to US citizens, and it’s not right for us Californians to ignore it even if we’ve become completely disillusioned to how ‘great’ America ever was.
In sum, Californians, I beg you to reconsider your indifference toward the US. Recognize the nature of the situation and take responsibility as a member of a nation. Do this most of all, because the US will operate with or without your solidarity. Dig back in, Californians. Kumbaya. Come by here.
