Re: Ethnocentricism? -Division-

[crenz]

Firstly, by not offering "Basque region" as a selection, it does not mean that I consider them Spanish. That is a false suggestion on your part. I would (for myself) consider them "inhabitants of that political entity called Spain" (just like those American expats that happen to live there for two years and check the same box), and of course you would be free to vote one of the "other" boxes.

Also, what do you mean when you say "spiritual stuff"? The people group/tribe/... people feel attached to, or what they feel at heart? Frankly speaking, this is too complex for a simple poll like this. I am aware of the Basque issues. But, to put the question to the extreme, should I have given twenty German states as alternative to voting "Germany"? Should I have named England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland?

The language people speak is a different question. Why would the Argentinians want to be grouped with the Spanish people? I don't see how everybody would have been happier with that. And of course, we'd be talking about American English and British English, Latin-American Spanish, Swiss German etc. and we'd have the political divisions again. In that poll, I wouldn't have offered the Basque language as a choice as well, for the reasons I outlined in the post before (not enough "critical mass").

However, I still encourage you to work on a poll suggestion about "What is your mother tongue?" (You'll find that a question that is as hard to answer to some as "Where do you spend most of your time?"). It is a different question, but also interesting.

Lastly, I'd like to restate that I didn't mean to make any political statement whatsoever. Nationstates are just something that we happen to have; I am making use of political boundaries to make an estimate where the monks might be. It doesn't mean that I like them, but it means that I found them to be the "best tool for the job" (that's the Perl content in this post! :)), since they are standardized and comparable.

I wouldn't have guessed that this post would cause so much commotion, and I'm sorry if I offended anyone. However, I suggest not taking this poll too seriously, and just see it as a piece of interesting information, as I do.