Indifference mainly because it has become an eternally delayable piety in effect, the South has an advantage in that all we really have to do is sit back and if it happens it happens most people are fine with that idea. Would we reject the vote for reunification no we cant because we signed the Good Friday Agreement which states we wait till the majority votes for it.From what I've gathered the general attitude of the majority of the Republic towards a united Ireland is indifference, not deference. If nationalists get a majority in the North and are able to take democratic towards unification, would the Republic reject them?
On this Nationalist reinvigration I have seen some writing on this from people like George Friedman and the like where a state divided like North is from the South has a major problem in that we have a land border with the North but they dont have one with UK. Effectively we can reinfuse our culture and politics into the North on a continual basis the UK cannot.
This is happening in the USA now with the rise of the Latinos they can continually reinvigorate the identity and culture but the older European stock cannot we basically gave them the lot ages ago.
The other problem for nation states is that power is being squeezed from the middle ie the state and going towards local and supra-national organisations which are taken over the BIG and the Local problems.
Effectively were globalising the local which was an idea proposed by Thomas Friedman in his book the World is Flat at least I think it was him I will have to dig out the book again.
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