I am provoked to this post by an article in The Spectator by Sean Thomas on the subject of national characteristics and since, judging by his name, he sounds half Irish and half Welsh he may be very well qualified! It is, I confess, a subject that has been rattling around in the back of my skull for some considerable time because I am guiltily aware that as a blogger commenting on world-wide affairs I am prone to laziness and self-indulgence by tossing around short-hand characteristics which I attach to various nationalities.
I really am ashamed when I catch myself at it because if ever there was a proof that so-called 'national characteristics' should be treaed with great caution it is this blog. I have had many different nationalites commenting here and it is a truth frequently repeated - well, frequently repeated by me! - that writing anything, no matter how apparently neutral and innocent, immediately begins to tell your reader something about yourself. All the personalities I have met via this blog have their fair share of discernible characteristics and it is all too easy to mutter something like 'typical bloody Yank', or 'what else would you expect from an Aussie' or 'oh no, not another grouchy Jock' or whatever. It is only when you pause for a moment to consider that you remember that exactly the same sentiments could have been tapped out on a keyboard belonging to any number English friends and aquaintances.
And yet ... and yet ... the idea of national characteristics is deeply entrenched - the rude French, the exciteable Italian, the loud American, the militaristic German and, of course, the quiet, modest, brave and generous Englishman - ooops, sorry, that's out of date now. Perhaps it was true once back in the 1950s when most Englishmen had been through a war about which most of them did not wish to talk and who were only too grateful for a quiet life. But today! Well, as far as I can tell, your 'average' (yes, yes, I know!) Englishman is a gobby, ignorant yob with the sort of social skills that would work best amongst a pack of orang-utans!
So, you tell me, is there really such a thing as a national characteristic?