English / British identity has also been cut to pieces.

crac · 17-12-2007, 02:12 PM

That anglican bishop that carried out a 'significant' act on television when he took his white collar off and he cut it into pieces on breakfast TV and he said that is what mugabe has done to the Zimbabwe peoples identity, he has cut it to pieces and i'm not putting my collar back on until Mugabe is no longer in power.
I think it was good and interesting to draw attention to the issue in that way but isn't that what has been done to the English / British identity !!!
Cut to pieces by this government of the last decade most badly but it's been going on for many years before that, previous governments of every colour have been slicing up the English/ British identity, selling it off, throwing it away, obscuring it with lies and 'new' visions, which turn out to be garbage.
We don't want their new visions of England /Britain, because they don't have the ability to improve on anything they only ever make it worse.

crac · 18-12-2007, 04:30 PM

No one seems interested too much in this issue but the way i see it is like this.
Everytime some other culture imposes their ways on us then we give up some of our identity.
I'm for Christianity as being upheld as the origin of our moral/ethical values oh plus roman and celtic and anglo saxon and norman as well probably, but not, Islam. I'm not against other religions, in fact i appreciate them but it's just not acceptable to have them impose their requirements on our society in our business and our schools and our hopitals and our streets and even in the good old BBC.
Not aginst the religion at all just against giving up our identity to it and anything else as well of course, although culture changes and grows and thats ok but not the way it's being done.
English British identity is in the way we do things including all our regional accents and history, including the queen, bless her, i'm not particularly a royalist it's just an essential part of our history which you don't just throw away.
I had a discussion with someone recently in which they said they would be happy for Nelson Mandela to replace the queen. Please...........

That is so far an innaproppriate idea that i feel my English character positively insulted. I'm not against Nelson Mandela at all but the idea of giving up my countries traditional ceremonial head of state to be replaced by a person with no relation what so ever to our country and its history is obcene.

The Guvnah · 22-12-2007, 11:18 AM

Whenever people inquire along the lines of "so what is this 'British Identity' you're so afraid of losing..." the defenders often mumble some half hearted irrelevances centred around fisn 'n chips so in the spirit of broadening the subject I offer the following 'History of English Literature' 1871 by H A Taine. Professor Taine was a French Anglophile who based his work on all the available evidence he could get, from Tacitus to Grim and this is a piece I find myself re-reading as it certainly chimes with me.

Anglo Saxons As We Were Around 500 A.D.

Some extracts from Professor Taine's work :

Quote:

"Huge white bodies, cool-blooded, with fierce blue eyes, reddish flaxen hair, filled with meat and cheese, heated by strong drinks; of a cold temperament, slow to love, home stayers, prone to brutal drunkenness….There is no living in these lands without abundance of solid food; bad weather keeps people at home; strong drinks are necessary to cheer them; the senses become blunted, the muscles are braced, the will vigorous. Add to this the pleasures of the fight..

Under this native barbarism, there were noble dispositions, unknown to the Roman world. In the first place, "a certain earnestness, which leads them out of idle sentiments to noble ones'… severe in manner, with grave inclinations and a manly dignity. They live solitary, each one near the spring or the wood which has taken his fancy. Even in villages, the cottages were detached; they must have independence and free air. They had no taste for voluptuousness; love was tardy, education severe, their food simple…they sought in preference not mild pleasures but strong excitement.

Each in his own home, on his own land, and his own hut, was master of himself, firm and self-contained, in no wise restrained or shackled…If he bends, it is because he is willing to bend; he is no less capable of self-denial than of independence; sacrifice is not uncommon.

Through all outbreaks of primitive brutality gleams obscurely the grand idea of duty, which is the self-constraint exercised in view of some noble end. Marriage was pure among them, chastity instinctive. They thought there was something sacred in a woman; they married but one, and kept faith with her. In fifteen centuries, the idea of marriage is unchanged amongst them..

The wife on entering the husband's home is aware that she gives herself altogether. And he, like her knows that he gives himself. Having chosen his chief, he forgets himself in him, assigns to him his glory, serves him to the death. "He is infamous, as long as he lives, who returns from the field of battle without his chief"

In their epic, the sublime springs up among the horrible, like a bright flower amid a pool of blood…Is it not strange to seem them place their happiness in battle, their beauty in death ? Is there any people, Hindu, Persian, Greek or Gallic, which has peopled its infantine mind with such gloomy dreams ? Is there any which has so entirely banished the sweetness from enjoyment, and the softness from pleasure ? Energy, tenacious and mournful energy, such was their chosen condition.

War is at every door… but warlike virtues are found behind every door: courage, chiefly, then fidelity. Under the brute there is a free man with a heart…Every chief in his hall reckons that he has friends, not mercenaries, in the faithful ones who drink his beer. The sentiments which serve them for discipline - an affectionate devotion and a respect for plighted faith. These appear in their laws and break forth in their poetry. Thus society is kept wholesome.

Religious instinct is not acquired; it belongs to the blood and is inherited with it. So it is with other instincts: pride in the first place, indomitable, self-conscious energy which sets man in opposition to all domination, and inures him against all grief"

17-12-2007, 02:12 PM	#1 (permalink)
crac Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 126	English / British identity has also been cut to pieces. That anglican bishop that carried out a 'significant' act on television when he took his white collar off and he cut it into pieces on breakfast TV and he said that is what mugabe has done to the Zimbabwe peoples identity, he has cut it to pieces and i'm not putting my collar back on until Mugabe is no longer in power. I think it was good and interesting to draw attention to the issue in that way but isn't that what has been done to the English / British identity !!! Cut to pieces by this government of the last decade most badly but it's been going on for many years before that, previous governments of every colour have been slicing up the English/ British identity, selling it off, throwing it away, obscuring it with lies and 'new' visions, which turn out to be garbage. We don't want their new visions of England /Britain, because they don't have the ability to improve on anything they only ever make it worse.

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18-12-2007, 04:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
crac Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 126	No one seems interested too much in this issue but the way i see it is like this. Everytime some other culture imposes their ways on us then we give up some of our identity. I'm for Christianity as being upheld as the origin of our moral/ethical values oh plus roman and celtic and anglo saxon and norman as well probably, but not, Islam. I'm not against other religions, in fact i appreciate them but it's just not acceptable to have them impose their requirements on our society in our business and our schools and our hopitals and our streets and even in the good old BBC. Not aginst the religion at all just against giving up our identity to it and anything else as well of course, although culture changes and grows and thats ok but not the way it's being done. English British identity is in the way we do things including all our regional accents and history, including the queen, bless her, i'm not particularly a royalist it's just an essential part of our history which you don't just throw away. I had a discussion with someone recently in which they said they would be happy for Nelson Mandela to replace the queen. Please........... That is so far an innaproppriate idea that i feel my English character positively insulted. I'm not against Nelson Mandela at all but the idea of giving up my countries traditional ceremonial head of state to be replaced by a person with no relation what so ever to our country and its history is obcene.