How Soccer Explains the World - soccer gives a unique insight into the relationship between ident...

1. How do identities interact with each other?

1.1. There's a strange interaction between racial identity and national identity in the United States. Minorities, specifically, black people are formally known as African-Americans. Similarly, natives are known formally as Native-Americans. Unless you're white in the United States you're unlikely to just be called an American. This separation puts racial identity and national identity at a point of separation in the United States.

1.2. The European Union has a problem with making people join their "identity." To try and combat it, a European national anthem was chosen and art from European countries are kept and preserved, not as national pieces but as European pieces of art. These attempts haven't been very successful as people still identify with their home countries identity as opposed to European.

1.3. There are a variety of "identities"; racial, ethnic, national, sexual, gender, class etc.. There is some contradiction between identities, people aren't very apt to fight about it. Poor people in the United States have a lower-class identity but compared to a lower-class identity in Hong Kong, the Americans are clearly in an advantage. Identity appears to have a relative factor to it.

2. How do multinational corporations spread globalism?

2.1. In soccer, multibillion dollar companies such as Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola as well as Chinese companies have all been sponsoring big soccer games. Which brings a slice of Western (and Eastern) culture into everyone's living room, watching the soccer game.

2.2. Foer mentions the new Italian oligarchs in his book. He describes millionaire families which own various Italian companies such as Fiat and Italian media which oppose each other in the Italian-based soccer league. The Angelli family, owners of Juventus, and opposes with the Berlusconi family, owners of AC Milan oppose each other.

2.3. In the 1990's, Shell, a multinational oil company, had been in conflict with Native, Ogoni people. There were mass protests while the Nigerian government, seeing the financial benefit of having an oil company in it's country, raided the Ogoni tribes and arrested thousands.

3. What are identity politics?

3.1. At the smallest level, an individual identity, identity refers to someone's personality and self-esteem. However, as argued by Foer, just an individual identity isn't suffice for people and it would be denying human nature to not acknowledge the importance of a collective identity.

3.2. Collective identity has been a driving force in politics since the dawn of time. Originally, pre-30 Years War, religious identities in Europe were fighting; Catholocism and Protestantism. Later, political identities, spanning into the 20th century and more recently, in addition to political identities, racial identities.

3.3. Identity politics are a variation of politics which prioritizes racial or ethnic identity as opposed to individual, political beliefs. Identity politics have rose to popularity through the rise of LGBT politics and post-Civil Rights Era racial politics. Political beliefs in identity politics are closely related to someone's ethnic or racial identity.

4. Every human is tribal, craves a collective identity

4.1. Evolutionary psychology would postulate that humans needed to stay in a tribe in order to survive. The group that you stayed in likely shared similar physical characteristics such race, language, culture, etc..

4.2. Nationalism has been a recorded phenomenon since at least the end of the 30 Years War when it strayed away from being a strictly religious war. Especially in times of crisis, nationalism rises. A once united country, after the death of their leader, Josip Tito, the country--almost instantly--fractured and people sought out national identity.

4.3. Catalonia, an autonomous zone in Spain, since the Spanish Civil War has sought freedom from Spain. Their language is different, their culture is different and the history is different. In soccer, this is seen through El Clasico, a soccer match between two rivals Barcelona, capitol of Catalonia, and Madrid, capitol of Spain.

5. Does globalism defeat national identity?

5.1. Though Foer argues that globalism secures nationalism in a peaceful way, one example he uses is self-defeating. He describes when Iran qualified for the World Cup, women threw their hijabs away. It's pretty clear that apart of Iran's national identity is that it's a religiously conservative country and participating in a Western event, the World Cup, they added a bit of Western culture.

5.2. In recent years, the EU has encountered kickback to it's globalist agenda. Countries such as Poland, Hungary and Greece have had right-wing nationalist parties rise to power which are in strict opposition to the EU. They cite the migrant crisis and the disproportionate amount of money countries have to pay in order to bailout others.

5.3. Globalism hasn't only been opposed by right-wing groups. The 1999 Seattle WTO protests were taken up by anti-globalists labor unions. Members of the unions opposed the free trade which comes with globalist policies. They argue that local businesses and workers are hurt by globalism by outsourcing and horizontal and vertical integration.

6. How do isolationist / nationalist countries react to globalism?

6.1. In the fall of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, companies became symbolism of globalism. The Soviet Union was extremely isolated from Western culture but when fast food came, isolation fell apart. Pizza Hut, Burger King and McDonald's all came to the Soviet Union and were extremely divisive. Younger people tended to appreciate the new restaurants while older people resented it.

6.2. North Korea is a relic from the Golden Era of the Soviet Union and communist China. Although an authentic form of Western globalism has yet to come to North Korea, there have been some artificial attempts at quelling their people's desires for fast food. Waffletown, a fast food restaurant designed in a Western way, was opened in North Korea in 2009 by a Singaporean businessman close to the Kim's.

6.3. Prior to the EU, Europe was prone to violent conflict, evidenced by World War I, World War II and the Cold War. The EU supported the "3 Pillars of the European Union" which brought European countries together with "European communities," "common foreign policy", and "judicial cooperation." Again, this is a divisive problem with some people arguing that it destroys culture and other saying it benefits everyone.