From: kyle@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Kyle Wohlmut)
Subject: Re: Will this group split in 2 parts?
Followup-To: soc.culture.czecho-slovak
Organization: Rocking Pig Enterprises
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 20:54:50 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.170420.11848@cbfsb.cb.att.com>
motto@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto (Mary "Motto" Otto) writes:
>I wanted to comment about the split of Czecho-Slovakia.  I have been
>quietly watching the discussion until now, but I wanted to share my
>opinion about what is happening there and in other parts of Eastern
>Europe.
>
[stuff excised]
>
>When I look at Eastern Europe, I see people who have been culturally
>repressed for a long time.  People who are releasing an accumulation of
>decades of Nationalism.  To us, it appears excessive.  To them, it is
>the enebriation of being able to freely express their cultural identity
>for the first time in a long time.  Further, in nations that were
>"created" by external forces which defined them, it is an ability to
>determine their own destiny and emphatically define their own niche
>in the world. 

This is especially true in Slovakia's case, a group whose national
identity has been supressed pretty much constantly.  But I think you
chose the right word (whether you meant to or not), 'inebriated.'
IMSNHO they are drunk on the freedom to express themselves.  When the
buzz wears off, I think we will all see how un-productive this kind of
movement is (and it will be quite a hangover :-).

> It forces the world to recognize that they are a culturally
>distinct group and not the polyglot that we were taught following
>the World Wars.  These people are claiming their culture for themselves
>in the truest sense of the fulfillment of freedom.  How many Americans
>had never heard the names Slovakia, Slovenia, Bohemia, Moravia, Croatia,
>Serbia?  How many Americans thought that the countries in Eastern
>Europe were homogeneous entities, without any cultural distinctions
>within -- a U.S.-style "melting pot"?

Forgive me for being blunt, but I hate this kind of talk.  What else
is new?  The US is certainly not a homogenous entity, as a lot of
Europeans seem to think.  Germany certainly is not.  Spain is not.
People who don't think there are cultural distinctions within America
(even within California!) just don't know the way it is.  I've lived
in both Europe and the USA, and I can safely say that the differences
between Northern Californians and, say, Louisianans, are rather more
pronounced than those between Czechs and Slovaks, or between Flems and
Walloons, or between Catalans and Galacians.  I deeply believe that if
there's to be any progess in the world, we must move toward unity
rather than away from it.  A people can embrace and express cultural
identity and heritage, AND at the same time be part of a unified whole.

>Claiming a separate cultural identity is never an easy struggle.  In
>the United States, look at the plight of American Indians (did you
>know that these people prefer that name to "Native Americans"?). 

Hmm, not the ones I know and work with.

> In
>Canada, look at the plight of the French-Canadians in Quebec.

Forgive me, but what 'plight' are you speaking of?  Are they being
opressed/repressed in some way that I'm not aware of?

>  In
>the United Kingdom, look at the situation for the Welsh.  It is not
>something that people pursue lightly.  It is something that they pursue
>in order to keep their culture alive.

Their culture -is- alive, very much so.  AND they gain a lot by being
part of the United Kingdom (Now, before I get flamed, let me say that
I have -no- confidence in the UK parliamentary system, and I think the
Welsh (and Scots for that matter) are unjustly represented in
government!  But that's a different problem...)

>The economic price of cultural survival may be high, but it will be worth
>any price.  Further, in this enlightened age where transportation and
>communications technology make borders less meaningful then ever, and
>when the European Community has made such strides to emphasize that
>borders are cultural rather than economic constructs, I find great hope
>that any perceived difficulties can be overcome.

For that very reason I argue that those borders should come down; why
bother to put up more meaningless borders?

>  But for now, we should
>rejoice with our brothers and sisters in this assertion of our culture
>and that it has survived and will grow into the next century.
>
>I am proud to be a Bohemian and proud to witness the courage and
>intelligence displayed in the creation of their new nation.  I pray
>that they will succeed and thrive.
>
>Mary Otto
>

Let us hope so; but I think we should remember at the parting that we
are stronger together than apart.

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