One of the concepts that resonated with me in Foers book is
the concept of how soccer teams in Europe represent the class, ethnicity and
religion of the area that the team is from.
This is interesting because it creates a stronger bond between the
people of the area. This feeling can
create a feeling of nationalism for the area and it also makes it possible to
develop prejudices against other teams for racist, and Anti-Semetic
reasons. This parallels the idea of
different countries hating each other because of race or religion. This is a major reoccurring theme in the
world. Countries and soccer teams in
Europe share the same type of method in which they stereotype their enemies.
One of the
major issues this country faces is the way that we as individuals perceive
other countries. Not only do we
generalize nations, we also don’t account for the way in which things change
overtime. For instance, Canada is
considered as country full of lumberjacks that are all overly friendly. This possibly could have been the case years
ago in certain places, but in general it is a country filled with diverse
people. These kind of misconceptions
make it hard for people to relate to people of other countries and creates
unnecessary problems between them. It is
unfortunate that people let stereotypes effect the way they treat and think
about other nations. I think that if
this kind of nationalism that promotes hatred continues it will be impossible
for people from different places to respect each other and come together in
times of crisis. Although globalization
does make it easier for different people to relate to each other, this boundary
will exist for as long as people perpetuate lies about other nations. Stereotypes are cruel and for the most part
incorrect assumptions. It is the
responsibility of individual people to rise above this and find a way to
understand that all people no matter where they are from are individuals and
should not be grouped together as one.
Nationalism
and Globalization can sometimes oppose each other and it is important for
people of a country to be able to have pride in their country without having
negative and mean perceptions of other countries. It is however undeniable that there is a
strong parallel between the fans of soccer teams and the citizens of countries.
I agree with your statement regarding the way we perceive individuals of distinct races, cultures, religions, etc. We are quickly to judge those who are different from us but we do not take into consideration the similarities we may have. Especially in the United States which is populated by individuals from various nations of the world. Foer definitely uses soccer fans to demonstrate the same idea. Fans of different teams consider themselves enemies, yet they share similar values, the only difference is the team they affiliate themselves with.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your point as well, and I believe that globalization does make stereotypes a bit less widespread as citizens of different states area able to communicate with each other easier and notice these stereotypes are mostly incorrect. However globalization can also for reasons I mentioned in my post fuel this stereotyping by inspiring too much nationalism in a particular nation that is receiving more foreigners, causing citizens to dislike these foreigners in an attempt to retain their cultural identity. Your main point is one I completely agree with however, and I felt the same way when reading about the conduct of these soccer fans that the parallel there was the often times misguided aggression different states can feel towards each other for no particular reason.
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