Global vs. National

Today one of the topics that came up in class was global culture vs. national culture. It reminded me of how we talked about Voltaire in European History. Voltaire believed the world was like a zero sum game in which one country's loss was another country's gain: "that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors." Voltaire advocated being a global citizen rather than a national citizen. I don't think the zero-sum game applies to the world anymore, because that concept was the basis of mercantilism and mercantilism definitely doesn't apply now. But I agree that being a world citizen is more important than being a national citizen.

Voltaire was also skeptical about the whole patriotism idea, which I mentioned as a topic today. He believed that people didn't feel passion for their fatherland, because one's fatherland could be defined as so many different things: your oven, your house, your village. Dr. B elaborated, asking the class rhetorically, do we really cared about the people in Detroit and do they really care about us here in Moorestown? The argument about whether patriotism/nationalism/unity exists could definitely be made.

-- tori