Pride in where you're from

[Neville Chamberlain]

Russ Abbot's from Wrexham?!? Knowing that has brightened up my day immeasurably!

Hmmm, I'm struggling to think of other worthy people from Yeovil...

Oh, PJ Harvey! I went to the same college as her!

Oh, and the lovely Sarah Parish who apparently came round to my parents house sometime back in the mid 80s due to a connection with my brother or something.

[buttgammon]

Well, I think Russ Abbott lived in Rossett just outside Wrexham. I'm not sure if he still does or if he's actually from round here originally.

[explodingvinyl]

edit. Double post.

[explodingvinyl]

Pride in something you had nothing to do with is meaningless, wherever you're from.

I understand that regional identity might mean something to you, but that doesn't mean it's a meaningful concept that I should acknowledge or respect.

I was born in Hackney. If a new group of terrorists decided to ethnically cleanse everyone that was born in Hackney, it wouldn't make me any more proud of being born there. Pride in random circumstance is still meaningless, and a dangerous personality trait.

I surrender all forms of national, continental or regional identity. The legal status of this is irrelevant.

A agree, as Vince Atta says in his stand up set "What are you proud for? You didn't do it". Or something like that.

[the midnight watch baboon]

I am too itinerant to identify and feel at home anywhere. Boohoo.

[Oscar]

I couldn't give a shit. Where you were born means nothing.

If you were born in a watery suburb in England, yeah.  Tell it to be people living in Iraq.  Conflict reinforces (or smashes) identity.  If I was born into a more stable, prosperous area I'd doubt I'd feel the same as I do.

I don't think that argument works well at all. Partly because it relies on a "Agree with me or you're a pampered rich fool who knows nothing" Julie Birchill style dismissal of any conflicting opinion.
And partly because it just isn't true, with some people and places certainly, but cultural identity is more complicated than that. I've known people come from countries that are in a terrible state who aren't proud at all (for exactly that reason) and the poshest person I know (she's the daughter of a Lord!) is very proud of her home city. This is anecdotal obviously, but from my experience people are far more complicated than rich upbringing= lack of pride in home country/city and poor ubringing=pride.

[chand]

I'm from Sale, a mediocre suburb of Greater Manchester, which I'm not particularly proud of. Our big thing is the rugby team, but they were so proud of Sale they fucked off to Stockport a couple of years ago anyway.

Our famous residents include long-dead physicist James Joule, but I can't claim to be proud of that, since the only reason I know about it is because there's a pub named after him where I used to buy 99p pints of John Smith's that tasted like the canal. Lard from Mark and Lard lives here though, which is cool, I've seen him around. And Ian Brown can sometimes be seen in our Sainsbury's. Who else? Commonwealth Games gold medallist Diane Modahl and Darren Campbell came through our athletics club, Sale Harriers. Which, like the rugby team, also fucked off.

However, all this is undone by the fact that we gave the world MOR singer-songwriter David Gray. Even if he was only 9 when he left.

I don't have any pride though really, no. I like the place, genuinely, it's a neat little town to live in, in as much as it's close to Manchester and fairly peaceful if you avoid certain pubs of a weekend. But pride is just such a weird notion; I'm proud of things I've done, but of the place where I live, it's just a town to me. When I find out that an important unit of energy is named after a guy who lived here, it makes me go 'Ah...cool', rather than 'SALE, FUCK YEAH! TAKE THAT TIMPERLEY, YOU LOSERS! YOU BITCHES AIN'T SHIT! FUCK FRANK SIDEBOTTOM!'.