BalanceOctober2016 - 27


MO D E R N P H I L O S OP HER

Welcome to
Cosmopolis
New College of the Humanities
lecturer Dr Christoph Schuringa
wants London to inspire the world

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/STOCKSY

T

hese are politically uncertain
times. Britain's place in

Europe is in question, and
thereby its place in the world.
Even London's presence in Britain
seemed to be in question for some
who were shocked by the result of the
Brexit vote. Some suggested - jokingly
or not - that London should declare its
independence and apply to stay in the
EU. But separatism isn't the answer;
its exact opposite is.
As every Londoner knows, the capital
is one of the most diverse cities in the
world, with a population augmented
by layer upon layer of immigrants from
all over the globe. Probably no more
typical Londoner could be imagined
than its mayor, Sadiq Khan, who grew
up in south London as the child of
Pakistani immigrants.
It is also a tough city, with a huge
disparity between rich and poor, in
which life is a hard struggle for many.
But its greatest strength comes
from its almost built-in resistance to
one form of separatism: the drive, so
prevalent in human communities, to
think in terms of 'us' versus 'them', the
indigenous versus the exogenous. It can
seem almost as if, as a city, London has
been inoculated against this tendency.

GLOBAL CITIZENSH IP
To put it another way, London is
cosmopolitan. We owe this concept
to Diogenes the Cynic, who lived in
Athens in the fourth century BC, as an

immigrant from Sinope in what is now
Turkey. (It's no coincidence that at the
height of its Golden Age, Athens was
drawing in people from all over the
lands surrounding the Mediterranean.)
Diogenes lived like a dog (we get
'cynical' from the Greek for 'dog'),
which for him meant living in a barrel
in the marketplace and unashamedly
carrying out all his bodily functions
in public. When asked his citizenship,
Diogenes declared he was a citizen
of the world, maybe just to shut up
his questioner. But in doing so, he
gave us an important concept (later
revisited by the German philosopher
Immanuel Kant).
Cosmopolitanism is tricky.
It is easily perverted into
imperialism - the idea that
one group may impose its
will on all others.
True cosmopolitanism
requires not only ongoing
negotiation between
different groups in order
to realise the aim of shared

citizenship of the globe, but sensitivity
to others and tenacity in arguing
against the views of (often powerful)
others. It's an arduous, conflictual
process, but its results are eminently
worth having.

LIF E LE SS ON S
London has lived the cosmopolitan
experience for much of its long history.
This has not been without strife (we
should not forget that the Brixton riots,
and other such moments of crisis, form
part of this history).
But whatever the future holds, our
city's achievements should not be
taken for granted. Let London not
separate itself off but draw others,
across Europe and the world, into the
cosmopolitan project. B

Separatism
isn't the
answer
to Brexit,
its exact
opposite is

LONDON HAS BEEN
INOCULATED
AGAINST THIS 'US'
VERSUS 'THEM'
TENDENCY
October 2016 BALANCE

27



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BalanceOctober2016

BalanceOctober2016 - 1
BalanceOctober2016 - 2
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