psynuk Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 "British people and their efforts have made this country great." In the realms of social privilege there's not much higher than being born a white male, in England, in the 20th century. Seriously, we have pretty much every advantage it's possible to have as a human being; safety,freedom,education,health,justice,peace,opportunity,so on and so forth. Having these advantages, a certain proportion of our race want to deny the opportunity to others, often citing the damage they'd do to the 'English culture' by way of justification. Assimilation of/by modern foreigners can only be judged once they are assimilated, surely. They are not invading hordes and they are still arriving in little numbers compared to the likes of the norman conquest, which saw a 150% population increase, mostly due to immigration. I'm reminded of the Chris rock sketch where the black guy at the airport is happy because the muslim at the airport is now the feared one, and he's a part of the whole. It used to be; blacks, Irish, pakis, chinks, poles.. But they're mostly fairly well integrated now, or at least accepted. So it's the turn of the somalis, libyans the romanians...Rocks airport muslim. Ironically this is by people who have no real grasp of their ancestors, prior to the few generations they can search back through. 3200 bc takes you back as far as written recorded history goes, no family tree survives to prove their ancestry to this age. But according to some, none of that matters anyway because it's about the here and now. Well it doesn't cut both ways, you either accept that; 'England, UK, GB,whatever' is a melting pot of past immigration and therefore is not pure and certainly not documented and that 'don't let them in' is a tad hypocritical. or You try and argue that england has some kind of distinct or identifiable heritage that isn't based solely on the landmass and it's occupants. Our culture isn't in any way definable, that bag of cats has been looked at on Sheff forum before and to no useful conclusion. Our language - mixed race, our customs-mixed race, our royalty-foreign, our ancestors - mixed race, yet our overall influence is huge. Other cultures will impose themselves a little, some people will be segregated, their children and their children's children will however integrate. Some aspects of their native culture may well survive to become part and parcel of the British 'culture'. Many will fall by the way side and be consigned to the history books. In fact any imported customs that are considered regressive are not going to make the cultural cut imo. There'll always be little pockets of resistance to forward motion. But I believe that the uk has been at the forefront of 'being great' for a long time precisely because we can argue and accept the differences of the people who live here while slowly yet deliberately pruning the chaff from the wheat. What, over the coming years and generations do you think will survive this English form of cultural evolution and what will be cast aside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrea Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Ancestry can be traced back through time by looking at DNA, no need for it to be written down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melthebell Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Dont talk sense youll have the whole right wing SF troll brigade on yo ass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzijlstra Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Dont talk sense youll have the whole right wing SF troll brigade on yo ass And I'll happily stand next to psynuk and bat them away for the insignificance they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseOwl182 Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 And I'll happily stand next to psynuk and bat them away for the insignificance they are. Yes, because there's nothing at all ironic in defending immigrants (because we're all human) whilst denouncing people with whom you disagree as being "insignificant". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hots on Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 "British people and their efforts have made this country great." In the realms of social privilege there's not much higher than being born a white male, in England, in the 20th century. Seriously, we have pretty much every advantage it's possible to have as a human being; safety,freedom,education,health,justice,peace,opportunity,so on and so forth. There are poor and destitute white people in the western world, but I take your general point about the good place Britain and British are in at this time. It didn't just happen overnight though, it took centuries to reach this point, in fact its only relatively recently that sanitation, a properly enforced rule of law and true democracy was granted to the masses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister M Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 A very good and though provoking opening post. I think along with the continuity there is a great deal of change, but in U.K change tends to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. In spite of what is sometimes written on here, I do think that the British are tolerant and good humoured with a strong civic culture. Along with the above, I think Britain has a great deal to be proud of, and as an example of this, in some countries things are codified and written, here things are 'understood' - perhaps because of our long history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hots on Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 (edited) Since the second half of the 20th century, for the first time in history Britain can actually completely control who enters the country, the credible risk of invasion has gone. We can now cherry pick who we let in and choose who we keep out. I'm all for (selectively) letting in outsiders which add something positive to British society, but sadly the powers that be have allowed the proliferation of cultures that set society back thousands of years rather than help us move forward. Edited August 7, 2015 by Hots on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister M Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 The second half of the 20th century was the first time in history where Britain could actually completely control who enters the country, the credible risk of invasion had/has gone. We can now cherry pick who we let in and choose who we keep out. I'm all for (selectively) letting in outsiders which add something positive to British society, but sadly the powers that be have allowed the proliferation of cultures that set society back thousands of years rather than help us move forward. Which cultures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hots on Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Which cultures? Don't play dumb. Try and be an openly gay Muslim, orthodox Jew, Hindu or a Roma Gypsie. Women are second class citizens in those communities too. Yes there is homophobia and sexism amongst some Christians and the general native British population but you can't deny the huge strides that have been made. It is a different world now. Open homophobia is rare to see and the C of E has just legalised gay marriage. Fat chance of that with the other religions and the Roma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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