Roots - We all have them. We are born of man and woman who followed the same path.
Trying to trace that path and find out why we look the way we do or why we have inherited a culture is tricky. We rely on our predecessor possessing or having possessed a similar desire for the best results. Death is also a problem - it limits how far we can ask firsthand.
Where does this desire come from? Its the world of today. Identity is everything; everything from the clothes you wear down to the beer you drink defines the character that you project to the rest of the world. Surely our ancestry must carry a little more weight than where we buy our bananas from.
In a formerly statist, divisionist world where cultures were safely isolated, the general populace didn't face this uncertainty. Social mobility was low, cultures didn't mingle as much as today.
Today, in the UK, there is such a culture clash. We are the epitome of the melting pot. Second generation migrants' children find themselves torn between the cultures of their parents and the demands of the Western cultural hegemony. There is little room for compromise. The choice seems clear cut - cling to a culture that simply cannot be uprooted and expected to thrive in foreign soil or conform; accept the dominant culture and grow away from your roots.
Or is it? Are we going to see a generation of people who acclimatize and begin a cultural exchange? We talk so much of the effect that the Western hegemony has upon us, but we underestimate our effect upon it.
Diversity is a theme that's beginning to define our age. Yes, there are tensions there will always be people who are afraid of things that are too different for them to understand - too foreign to embrace as their own. All societies draw blanks every now and again but this is not enough to derail our progress.
Drawing strength from our roots, channeling our cultural grounding we can use our difference to affect the world around us.
"What's past is prologue." ~ The Tempest (2.i.253)
