What a ride. Thanks for sharing your insight. It’s hard to articulate loving something as abstract as a country. When you factor in culture and struggles and identity, it becomes difficult to describe just what makes you love it.
And there’s really no way to tell for sure if you would still love something if you weren’t raised with it. (Would religious scholars choose the same faith, had their parents not encouraged it?)
One thing you may find interesting:
In America, there’s a program called Boys State. Every year in every state, a host (1100 in my state) of 17 year old boys meets for a week and simulates running state government. I recently attended, and my experience reminds me largely of your Genesis Experiment.
When you arrive, you are randomly assigned into one of two political parties. These parties are just names; they have no established political agenda, figureheads, or meaning, other than the “us vs. them.” While it certainly wasn’t unanimous, (or a true controlled experimental environment) the loyalty I saw kids develop to their “party” was immediate and strong.
We quickly learned to identify with our party, and even though nobody knows each other and has no reason to ‘love’ their party, that’s exactly what happened. In fact, it quickly became extremely polarized.
We made chants around “beating the nationalists” and sweeping the podium, etc. (As quickly as we resorted to extremes, it’s unsurprising to see the current state of the American political system, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Anyway, in my personal experience, patriotism can indeed be formed without prior connection.
What a ride. Thanks for sharing your insight. It’s hard to articulate loving something as abstract as a country. When you factor in culture and struggles and identity, it becomes difficult to describe just what makes you love it.
And there’s really no way to tell for sure if you would still love something if you weren’t raised with it. (Would religious scholars choose the same faith, had their parents not encouraged it?)
One thing you may find interesting:
In America, there’s a program called Boys State. Every year in every state, a host (1100 in my state) of 17 year old boys meets for a week and simulates running state government. I recently attended, and my experience reminds me largely of your Genesis Experiment.
When you arrive, you are randomly assigned into one of two political parties. These parties are just names; they have no established political agenda, figureheads, or meaning, other than the “us vs. them.” While it certainly wasn’t unanimous, (or a true controlled experimental environment) the loyalty I saw kids develop to their “party” was immediate and strong.
We quickly learned to identify with our party, and even though nobody knows each other and has no reason to ‘love’ their party, that’s exactly what happened. In fact, it quickly became extremely polarized.
We made chants around “beating the nationalists” and sweeping the podium, etc. (As quickly as we resorted to extremes, it’s unsurprising to see the current state of the American political system, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Anyway, in my personal experience, patriotism can indeed be formed without prior connection.
Thanks again for your thoughtful publication.