Prisoners of National Narratives.

More than other peoples, the Germans are anxious about the debt, (and have the reduction of the debt written in their Constitution) as they remember the days of the Weimar Republic and how the economic crisis led to the Nazi era.

Meanwhile the French are anxious about how religion -namely Islam- may be encroaching on their national secularism when becoming more visible (see the Burqa and Headscarf recent controversies or the National Identity debates), as they remember how religion (the Catholic church) opposed Republican ideals and freedom.

As for the Americans, they have their own national anxieties - that the government should take away their personal rights and freedom, including their rights to bear arms, which is iniquely American (including the Tea Parties), as they remember the American Revolution and the fight against a “tyrannical government” (Taxation without Representation) and as weapons played a major role in American history, including its western expansion.


No one can deny that the debt is real and may cause serious problems (look at Greece this week) or that Islam extremists have a scary political and religious agenda, or that the US Federal government is more powerful than in any other time in history.

But if you think reasonably about it, the situation in Germany and Europe has nothing to do with the 1930s, religion (including Islam) is no threat to the French Republic, and the U.S. government, as powerful as it is, is far from tyrannical (while many Americans don't like to pay taxes, they can vote and be represented).
Not only are those fears unreasonable, but they are also unique to each nation and cannot be transferred anywhere else.

So my question now is are all mere products of our history and can we somewhat escape our national narrative?

Personally, I find this a very challenging idea.
As I was listening to the opposition party leader say that she "would not accept a woman with a headscarf on one of her lists [of candidates] because religion must remain a private matter and not become part of Republic domain. You are elected and present the Republic, you represent everyone and you don’t need to show ostentatious [conspicuous] religious signs which belong to the private sphere." (here in French), I was torn.
At some level, I got it and agreed... but at another level, I suspected my views were tainted by my upbringing in French national narrative. So I have been trying to change the paradigme and find some less "national istic"view of the entire issue. After all, the French claim that their ideas from the Revolution and the Enlightenment are universal. But are they?