Indeed, it may be significant that many professional humanitarians fall into such a
category.^43 Calhoun notes the danger, which he sees as being encouraged by
common cosmopolitan perspectives, of confusing “the privileged specificity of our
mobility for universality. It is easy for the privileged to imagine that their experience
of global mobility and connection is available to all, if only everyone would ‘be’
cosmopolitan.”^44 He puts this forward not as an anti-humanitarian perspective. On
the contrary: “the genuinely attractive ethical orientation toward a common human
community of fate can be undermined by an unattractive self-congratulation and
lack of self-critical awareness of privilege”.^45 He contrasts the expression “citizen of
the world” with “man of the world”, the latter implying merely a loose moral
framework and a tendency towards indulgent over-consumption of the world’s
pleasures.^46 This recalls Michael Walzer’s rejoinder to Martha Nussbaum’s famous
plea for a cosmopolitan education. He writes that he shares many of her
conclusions, but ultimately:
I am not a citizen of the world, as she would like me to be. I am not even
aware that there is a world such that one could be a citizen of it. No one has
ever offered me citizenship, or described the naturalization process, or
enlisted me in the world’s institutional structures, or given me an account of
its decision procedures (I hope they are democratic), or provided me with a
list of the benefits and obligations of citizenship, or shown me the world’s
calendar and the common celebrations and commemorations of its
citizens.^4743
Their memoirs often give a sense of “if it’s Wednesday, it must be Afghanistan...” See for
example Foley, The Thin Blue Line. The title of John Norris’ study of humanitarians is itself
revealing. Norris, 44 The Disaster Gypsies.
Calhoun, "Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Social Imaginary": 106. Amusingly, he cites LSE
as the “academic headquarters” of this kind of cosmopolitan hubris. Calhoun,
"Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Social Imaginary": 1 45 08.
46 Calhoun, "Cosmopolitanism in the Modern Social Imaginary": 106.
47 Ibid.: 109.
Michael Walzer, "Spheres of Affection", in For Love of Country? , ed. Joshua Cohen
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), 125.