It's getting strange out there

[Starscream_UK]

I love the fact that I have to remain "politically neutral" in my job...I support the current government here in the UK courtesy of my employment - regardless of whether I vote for them or not.

After all, they are just ministers...and I'll be around as a department head alot longer than they will! Brouhahahaha!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I love the fact that I have to remain "politically neutral" in my job...I support the current government here in the UK courtesy of my employment - regardless of whether I vote for them or not.

After all, they are just ministers...and I'll be around as a department head alot longer than they will! Brouhahahaha!

I used to tell angry constituents the same thing when I was a bureaucrat. Congressmen come and Congressmen go but I'm still here the next day. I AM the government.

Then I quit and went to play with kids.

 

[only_more_so]

I love the fact that I have to remain "politically neutral" in my job...I support the current government here in the UK courtesy of my employment - regardless of whether I vote for them or not.

After all, they are just ministers...and I'll be around as a department head alot longer than they will! Brouhahahaha!

In the US it depends on how high up you are. Basically everyone above a certain level submits their resignation around the time of the inauguration and the new President picks and chooses who to keep and who to boot. Then the results propogate downward.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

In the US it depends on how high up you are. Basically everyone above a certain level submits their resignation around the time of the inauguration and the new President picks and chooses who to keep and who to boot. Then the results propogate downward.

Only among appointees. Civil Service types just go on and on like the bunny with the drum.

 

[only_more_so]

Only among appointees. Civil Service types just go on and on like the bunny with the drum.

True enough, the average worker bee doesn't have much to worry about (usually). But it is more than appointees, since every appointee has people. Appointees also have pet projects which can fall by the wayside with the appointee.

Of course, individual projects are on the chopping block every time congress does the budget.

 

[SlickTony]

The word itself has been hijacked by the racists, who claim that to be a Swedish patriot, you must hate all immigrants and want to send them back to whatever country their forefathers came from.
On the other side, we have those who are so afraid of being seen as racists that they try to forbid the national anthem from being sung in schools at graduation or on the national holiday, just in case immigrant children will feel left out or insulted or something.

In other words, just like here, however, with a little bit of

In my opinion what many Americans call patriotism is nationalism. Right on the same level as Deutschland Über Alles and 'The Sun Will Never Set On The British Empire'. You'll never get the Americans that think this way to admit it though. Like all nationalists they think their nationalism is different from everybody else's.

...in play as well.

I may have mentioned how much in the minority I feel among the people I go to church with; I feel like a mangy coyote among them (not dangerous enough to be a wolf in sheep's clothing). There's a (mostly) lovely older woman in the choir with me with whom I became friends on account of cats; we're both avid cat people. I don't mind when she sends me cute emails about cats, but I can do without the political stuff, the pro-McCain/Palin tracts and the Obama smears. But really, no matter what my political leanings or hers might be, I've voted already.

 

[xssve]

In Sweden, patriotism isn't all that big a deal. The word itself has been hijacked by the racists, who claim that to be a Swedish patriot, you must hate all immigrants and want to send them back to whatever country their forefathers came from.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel".

--Samuel Johnson.

 

[SlickTony]

Question for you, Svenskaflicka, seeing as I don't know a whole lot about the country of (some of) my forefathers: In America, citizenship is conferred upon you at birth, as long as you were born on American soil, no matter who your forefathers were. Is it that way in Sweden? I know that in some European countries, it's not. Your dad could have been born in the country, as well as yourself, but if you're not ethnically part of that country, you might as well have been born somewhere else. I've always thought that this viewpoint/official policy was responsible for much of the immigrant trouble some European countries have.

 

[SeaCat]

What most people don't understand is that this is not even Nationalism or Patriotism. It goes deeper than that. It's called Tribalism. (Another name is Fanaticism.)

If you do not belong to a certain group then you are the enemy.

If you are not an Ashkenezi you are not a Jew.
If you are not a Sephradim you are not a Jew.
If you are not a Catholic or a Lutheran you are not a Christian.
If you are not a Roman Catholic you are not a Catholic.

Shall I go on?

In any group there are those who believe their way is the only way.

Even among those who feel the same there will be differences and name calling.

Cat

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Except that nationalism is on the rise in Europe, Rob, right down to the Balkanized little bits that never were independent countries. As the EU developes arteriosclerotic bureaucracy and paralysis, the fissures begin to widen and bleed. North and Southern Ireland, Scottish Independence, Splitting Belgium, the Basques, the Walloons, etc. Tribalism is never far from the surface and when you have homogeneous populations that are feeling threatened by heterogeneity it boils right up in violence, especially when the political elite refuse to acknowledge that such things are possible. At least every time we try to invade Canada, y'all have beat the socks off of us.


Buying you guys is another story all together.

Actually, we invaded British North America, back when King George ruled it. The Brits kicked our butts there, though not as much on our own soil.

I have no problem with patriotism or nationalism. It's fascism, jingoism, and imperialism that are the problem. And Bush seems intent upon borrowing ideas from all 3. Which is scary, and one of the reasons that I bolted the GOP this year.