europe's (torn?) identity - Projects - AEGEE Europe

THE YUGOSLAV LESSON
AND THE EU
»Europeanness« 1 as a particular form of transnational identity might help us in
the search for the kind of democratic community that provides existential credibility
and brings meaning to an individual life. However, it would be inaccurate
to understand “Europeanness” merely as a top-down political demand that
would rob us of our concrete experience of the immediate surroundings and the
life-world. Such a model would be contrary to the ideal and the desire for a
meaningful belonging to the community, a belonging that rests on the assumption
of concentric circles of identity. These circles flow from an individual self
and his/her immediate environment, the family, stretching onto the locale and
the nation, attempting to reach regional and trans-national identities, possibly
ending in an embrace of humanity as the ultimate, albeit weakly conceived community.
Individual and collective bonds first arise from within local boundaries and later
spread beyond them. Any attempt to leap-frog local boundaries in favor of a
global citizenship or an unmediated Europeanism is probably destined to fail
because the consequence of such an identity politics would be that people would
no longer feel at home. The old cliché that Moliere slipped into Le Misanthrope
that he who loves all of mankind cares not for individuals and their concrete
reality no doubt still holds true. Only if we establish our needs and fulfill them
in the framework of particular identifications can we begin to hope for an access
to more general forms of identification.
National and ethnic identities are neither insignificant nor necessarily harmful,
as many leftist thinkers would have us believe. The central question of identity
must be reformulated: how and on what basis can we balance the demands for
an ethnic identity vis-à-vis trans-ethnic identities in which we balance both
types of bonds and responsibilities? Reflection on these choices and the search
for equilibrium is unavoidable in a pursuit of an appropriate framework for
European identity, a framework that will not sacrifice national identification
tout court.
One way to approach the issue is through education. For example, if European
children learned early on about ligatures of belonging based on the self as being
part of the whole, they might become acquainted and comfortable with the concept
of broader communal ties. In this way, they might gain a solid foundation
for coping with the complex world beyond their specific locality. They may thus
acquire a greater level of self-confidence as they move along the concentric cir-
1 Edited impromptu speech.
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