Frith

So-called Celtic knotwork is also actually Anglo-Saxon, brought to Ireland by Anglo-Saxon priests. The intertwined Anglo-Saxon knotwork is closely related to the Norse intertwined beasts and dragons designs. Knotwork is a very Germanic thing. The Celts had wonderful natural free flowing forms and fabulous beasts, flowers, birds, etc. And the Celtic cross is not theirs either. Theirs is the circle with a dot in the centre to represent the Goddess. (The Germanics have the "suncross".) The Picts brought the geometric designs and the "Celtic" spiral design to Ireland and anywhere else they went. Elaborate body painting or tattooing is a Pictish characteristic. The Picts have been linked at times to the Anglo-Saxons and both linked to the Norse. All are Indo-European in origin.

cassie

If you regard a copiously worded monologue [see Post#69(!!!) which I have scanned but not bothered to read] 'writing well', you are in great need of instruction.

However, what of yourself gina/David H? When are we going to be treated to a sample of your sparkling literary brilliance? When are YOU going to write something positive, instead 'attacking' (to use your hyperbolic word) me?

What is the matter with you people? You devote whole posts to criticising me, accusing ME of being divisive and a troll to boot, but apparently fail to see how much you are muddying the English water yourself!

What a lot of sanctimonious, hypocritical clods you appear! Now YOU have been attacked - see how YOU like it!





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cassie

Wrong thread son! This one is about "mixed race participants in your demo"!

Do pay attention, and try to keep up!




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cassie

You'll be glad of the opportunity to do your party piece.

For my part: I have no idea what you are saying and am not foolish enough to pretend otherwise.

Now . . . will the fools rush in after this admission of mine?


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Frith

On the subject of the "mixed race" individuals who become the pivot points for window dressing in almost all political movements: being half one race and half another can change how you feel towards a particular culture. Often a race mixed individual feels drawn to both and at times to only one.

I have found from talking to various people and from reflection on my own nature that everyone has a definite attraction for particular kinds of people and things. They should, before they enter into any rash decisions about belonging, go off quietly and consider who they feel they are and what they feel they want to identify themselves with. Often we make mistakes. I know I have in certain areas. I know others who have suddenly realised this and freed themselves of a burden that society or tradition placed on them and followed instead the roads they felt called to them in a special sort of way, both cultural and spiritual.

Ethnic people are obviously the main thrust of ethnic movements, but everyone needs to first ask themselves how they truly feel before plunging in. No false promises or pseudo acceptance can take the place of a real sense of belonging and I have found that you only get this from soul searching and decision making that is often exclusive of what you may feel you ought to be doing or supporting.

cassie

Any chance of you relating this to the question: "I would like to know your views on mixed race participants in your demo?"? - the demo being to promote the establishment of an English Parliament.

Why are you conflating the policy of seeking a parliament for the people of England [note the phrasing here] with 'ethnic movements'?



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Ea of Dune

It's an Old English (eald Englisc) proverb and roughly reads:

"Often a slack one hesitates seeking glory in each victorious undertaking. Because of this, he dies alone."

I rather like it.

Ea of dune

cassie

Once again I have to disclose a personal shortcoming! [Don't tell Frith!]

I'm not sure what is meant by the phrase 'slack one'. I can imagine, especially when considered together with the remainder of the proverb, but it is an idiom unfamiliar to me. This is not a criticism: more an acknowledgement of a deficiency in myself ie ignorance of Old English.

What peeves me is that, in 2000, Blair signed up to the so called 'European' [ie EU] Convention on the preservation and promotion of minority languages whereby public funds are made available to teach certain specified languages in the UK such as Scotch, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Cornish, Manx, Welsh but not - surprise, surprise! - Old English!

Who really doubts that there is an unstated policy of eradicating as much Englishness as possible? [These latter comments are in the wrong thread really, and should be in the 'deculturisation of the English'.]





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Frith

I'm not conflating anything with anything else, I am thinking about the hypocrisy in the term English when used by people who want to be English, want an English Parliament and want the English people to be free of whoever is holding them back from liberty, but who can't manage to define what being English is, other than to make it a generalised sort of group living in a region called England. It's not enough for real English people.

It's very difficult for people wanting a Parliament, a free country, a nation or any other ethnically bound entity to get past this eternal question of "can I come to your party too, I am not like you but I think of myself as like you in every way." They don't, of course, it's a ploy to trap the unwary, so I sympathise with leaders and others who have to spread their arms and various other aspects of their anatomy to please the eagle eyed powers that be and their numerous obvious plants and say "Welcome, my son or daughter. If you feel English then you are English." They already have the Irish saying "You don't have to be Irish to be Irish." Yes, you do, actually.

This doesn't mean they shouldn't join the protest or parade or whatever it is they feel they must join. But this whole "am I English" and "can I come too" is filled with all the usual Marxist pitfalls of getting you to define the English. The moment you do define them the accusations of racism will begin to fly.

It's an old story and people are getting tired of it. There is a lot more to being English than merely having an affinity for whatever passes today for English culture. The fact that very little of what passes for it today is actually English doesn't seem to matter. So what are these people really asking the hapless leader of the demo? They are asking him that perennial question "Are you a racist?"

So I am telling them that I might ask an Indian if I could join his parade or come to his celebration but I wouldn't have the crass impertinence to try and take his ethnicity nor his cultural heritage from him by demanding to be made a apart of it just because I liked his welfare package and enjoyed a bowl of curry now and then, between visits to my Christian church meetings and episodes of Mr Bean. Because there is a lot more to being an Indian than this. I think it's time people stopped terrorizing Europeans in Europe every time Europeans in Europe want to do anything that involves primarily Europeans in Europe. Yes, you will need to define European, but you will come up with the opposite of "person of Indian or African descent."

It's unjust when only the west is made to answer these annoying questions for the benefit of some hoped for media "shock". No one should be obliged to answer them. They are an infringement on the liberty of groups to express their reality.

cassie