Freedom from the question of national identity

Questions of national identity remain important in Eastern Europe, as in all of Europe in general. They dominate not only politics, and public discourse in general, but also artistic production. At the same time they are completely missing from, say, modern American or Japanese or Chinese cultural production, a clear sign that one can live quite well (or, rather, just as miserably) without asking himself about his national identity at all. (There are plenty of other problems with which to screw up ourselves: sexual identity, relationships, race, environment, diet, etc.) Why Europeans should have put themselves through the misery of the national wringer for over 200 years now totally escapes me. Yet they do; and if they find something shallow about American cultural production, the chief reason is usually just that: its lack of occupation with questions of national identity. Perhaps the very reason also why American cultural production -- which really is shallow, if for a reason not related to national identity in my honest opinion -- is such a hit with the same Europeans. ("Please get me away from this hell").

The freedom from the question of national identity is thus both -- odious and liberating. How odd.