Europe or "splendid isolation"?

[oetzi]

In several other british online-communities I once asked this question:
"Do the british isles belong to europe or does the latter consist onbly of the continent?"
The results were astonishing.
The majority of the cyclists (www.cyclingplus.com) argued that europe is only the continent.
The coffee-freaks (www.toomuchcoffee.com) in their vast majority said, that they belong to europe.
So what is your opinion?

 

[gregorach]

Definitely part of Europe in my opinion.

 

[Lurch]

I'm with Winnie

But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe,but not of it. We are linked but not combined. We are interested and associated but not absorbed

So yes a part of Europe the continent but a bit off on our own, just like we are geographically.

 

[Wayland]

On our own until the next Ice Age.

 

[BorderReiver]

Civis europeanus sum.

 

[sodajoe]

I don't think they "belong" to anyone. Although anytime I have gone to Europe I have felt like a foreigner. More so than, say Britain or America.

 

[Toddy]

We are European peoples but Islanders not Continentals......does that make sense?

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[British Red]

Surely Europe belongs to us rather than the other way around?

 

[oetzi]

Thats also a way of putting it.
When I asked this question for the first time, it was out of curiosity. In C+ there was
a thread about whether one member would by a british frame or "an euro one". Quite a distinction, which made me think. And ask.

 

[Warrior Librarian]

So what is your opinion?

Depends whether you're talking geology or culture. We're part of Europe in a physical, tectonic plate kind of way - but we're certainly not European in culture.

 

[sabre iom]

Us here in the Isle of Man are definately not part of europe and being Manx i dont have the rights of a european citizen. My wife is Danish and i still have no rights there compared to those who live on the 'mainland'.
Part of the isles yet not european by any means!

 

[capacious]

We are British. People from Austria are Austrian. Germans are German. People from Switzerland are Swiss. People from Scandinavia are Scandinavian. People from Turkey are Turkish. The French are just wrong.

In my opinion there is no such thing as European. Compare Spain to Romania. The culture are so incomparibly different that they could never be drawn under the same cultural banner.

Compare Bulgaria and Wales.

Or Yugoslavia and Austria.

Or neighbouring France and Germany.

Or England and Liechtenstein.

Or Portugal and Monaco.

Or Turkey and ANY other 'European' country.

Even within one country the cultures are so contrasting. In Cyprus they are Greek and Turkish. Macedonia alone has three main languages, Macedonian, Albainian and Serbo-Croat. That's not even including the regional dialects. In Monaco they speak French, Monegasque, Italian AND English.

The cultures are so diverse, so amazingly different, even between bordering countries that it is rediculous to say we are all 'European'.

So I say that there is no such thing as Europe, except in some political sense of keeping control over the masses.

 

[CLEM]

Racially we are Europeans but as a nation/country we are deffinatley not European.

 

[demographic]

"Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home."

- Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14

 

[Stuart]

nice demographic, very nice indeed