Originally Posted by
Macilento
Hello boys, i'm Italian, and while i absolutely love the idea and what Europe SHOULD means , in reality we are far as possible from that idea. In fact it's getting worse and worse each year.
But fellow europeans, do you see a future where Europe will finally become a united and more cohesive place?
My answer is very simple: NO it won't, BUT, we can definetly get better at it and get nearer to that idea.
Maybe you don't know this, but Italy is like a blueprint for Europe.
Italy is divided in 20 regions, and every region, while all being Italian, share A LOT of differencies. Dialect, political views, cooking, general ways of living can change quite drastically. Infact living for example in south italy is a completely different experience then living in north italy.
This is because what happened in our past that lead to different reigns and countries, not to mention our position is quite strategic and we were influenced by basically every possible civilization in history.
So the differences are there and are very visible, even if you are a stranger the first time visiting our country you can definetly see all of the above.
Does this lead to "conflict"? Yes, but at the same time it's a great value to have so many different aspects, thoughts, views united under a single banner. The problem is making them work together.
That bring us back to the Europe problem as you can see the similarities are there. YOu can maybe consider Europe as a "Giant Italy" with the differences i descripted even more marked and strong. That's why i do not see Europe being a really true united place to live in.
Even now in 2017 we have still all of those prejudice between us, these are laughable and ironic, but kinda true at the same time.
Examples: "France are Italy are BAD cousins" "Germany is still third reich style of government" "All people in northern countries (denmark, norway, sweden) are sad" "Eastern Europe is just a bunch of drunken dudes and criminals", "Everyone laugh at Italy, the fool of the village", "Everyone is a drug addict in Netherland", and many more.
These are exagerations, and hoe people percive one another is an individual effort as well, but all of these should go away if we want Europe to be what it should be in the future.
Thanks