Yes, I agree it's a fundamental aspect of human social behaviour (and hey, perhaps a little healthy competition can encourage all to strive to be better ;-) ) But my gut feeling is that people feel less responsible to people in seperate countries to them than they do to their fellow countrymen. I guess if you have two groups of people who are in Bitter Rivalry already giving each of them their own space which is theirs to rule might improve things. If you have One Nation of mostly-similar people breaking it into two just introduces further division and My-Team mentality. My naive feeling was that Scotland-England was more of the latter than the former, but the more I read history the more I am prepaired to believe it is the former, at which point if they want independance they should have it. I'll still think it is sad though.
You don't have to read history, just read some of the articles on the Guardian on the subject and look in the comments section. The divisive hatred is already there, mostly from the little Englander side.
Of course, Scotland occasionally has its own us-and-them flareups, at Old Firm matches.
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Date: 2011-10-27 03:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-27 03:47 pm (UTC)Of course, Scotland occasionally has its own us-and-them flareups, at Old Firm matches.