Ask500

| Login

Is a sense of global citizenship more important than one's sense of national citizenship? Ask a Question

Is a sense of global citizenship more important than one's sense of national citizenship?
Click to vote
Yes
No
2 Answers

Depends on what your ultimate goals are. If you ar into stealing resources and murdering children, nationalism is the way to go. If you are into peace and plenty for all, then global citizenship is the answer. Why do you think the Seattle Demonstra6tion against the WTO meant so much? American citizens finally got on board with activists from all over the world.

2 Replies to dauguy's answer

I would tend to say that global citizenship is indeed more important (given that worldpeace and honest sharing are indeed among my goals). Strangely however my sense of national citizenship is stronger than that of global citizenship, so I wonder why that is? I think this has probably an evolutionary basis and dates fromt the time we lived in small tribes. Our world back than was the unit of the tribe. Now we live in a global reality with global threats and challenges, however our biology still tells us to adhere to the local tribe.

I think you might be right. And if we had only half a million human beings in small groups scattered over a few million square miles with no technology more sophisticated than the t5rhowing stick, it would not be a threat of catastrophic proportions to heed that innate we/they voice. But that is NOT the case, and if we do not learn very quickly to include the entire race as 'we,' then the entire race may well disappear overnight, in evolutionary time. Call it 10-20 generations in mortal years.

No such thing as global citizenship. Common humanity, sure, but that's different.

5 Replies to peterf's answer

This comment was deleted.

Citizenship has a legal meaning. I am not a citizen of Australia. But I am, although no one asked me if I wanted to be, a citizen of the European Union. This means I am obliged to pay taxes to and obey the laws of that anti-democratic monstrosity.

This comment was deleted.

OK. But I would say that anyone with a sense of common humanity is unlikely to limit it to his own countrymen.

This comment was deleted.