[nukkad] Relation of a nation and its language

["Harshal Chhaya" <>]

On the drive to work this morning, I caught part of a radio discussion
about illegal immigration to the US and its impact on US culture. The
program was a right-wing talk show and the talkers didn't dissapoint -
they fulminated against the illegal immigrants and how they posed a
great threat to the 'American way of life'.

Something that the guest, Pat Buchanan, btw, said made me chuckle. He
was railing against the supposed reluctance of some immigrants to
learn English. He projected this into the future  and declared that
the only outcome from this would be the loss of English as a national
language. What he said next was funny - he insisted that a nation is
defined by a language. He repeated this point in a few different ways,
each time hammering on the fact that any reduction in English's
importance would mean that US would cease to exist as a nation. He
said things like "If we don't have a common language, how can we call
ourselves a nation?" and "Any nation with more than one language has
always broken up. Look at the Balkans."

He clearly hasn't heard of India. And this is a guy was once wanted to
be the US President.

His narrow and incorrect view of the relationship of a nation with a
language was sad enough to be funny. The sense of superiority that I
got from gloating about his ignorance will carry me through the day.
Sometimes it pays to listen to right-wing radio.

- Harshal


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Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. 
-Confucius,  philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)
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