The tyrrany of place

Today I heard the harrowing tale of a man who refused to leave his native Syrian village as it was being invaded by ISIS fighters. They found him sitting in his home and dragged him out to be executed.

What is this love of place – loved only because it is where you have always been? Loving something because that is all you have known would seem to be so obviously constricted that we would assume it could be seen as unwise by its adherents. But this may be the true origins of the term “love is blind”.

I suffer no such a state of mind and have long been uncomfortable with my British roots. That does not make me any more wise, of course, as I cannot entirely explain my phobia against all things British.

Coming back to Britain this week was a shock. The sudden lack of space after the thinner populated countryside of France, the urgency and aggressiveness of ordinary acts and the deep intolerance towards foreigners – all seemingly invisible to those who reside on the island. I heart a Syrian refugee talk on a news programme about the first impressions of Britain and the wondrous sense of freedom that they had found – but for me that was more the relief of getting somewhere that you have long regarded as a promised land.

Millions have died defending homelands. Perhaps it made more sense when economies were primarily agrarian. But I sometimes wonder where we would now be if the defeated conquerors had triumphed instead. After all the defeat of the Anglo-Saxons by the Normans in Britain was – in the end – a deeply civilizing influence. Mad as Napoleon was, his greatest achievement would have been to unite Europe and remove the instability that followed in the next 200 years

As multinational HR professionals we constantly confront the stubborn geocentricity of people and the misleading view employees often have of other countries. It is like we were trees with deep roots rather than nimble beings on two legs.

Strangely the higher incidence of foreign travel today has not increased people’s nomadic tendencies. Possibly because, as tourists or transient business visitors, we never really see the places that we visit. That is why employees who have worked or studied abroad – or taken a “year out” going native or “roughing it” on a hike to some far off place are the best people to hire. For the world is a vast feast for the eating and the coincidence of birth is no cause to base a life’s philosophy upon.

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