At least the Brits are still waxing strong with their Monarchs and Monarchy, even if it appears breaking apart at the seams and seems more exclusionary than inclusive. No?
I think Britain is lost for good. It's a big bereavement. The turning point was when the largest peacetime mass rape in Europe was basically glossed over. And this was more than ten years ago.
I hope you are right and I’m wrong, but Britain seems to be in a deep, deep identity crisis, right now. You yourself, you say that Britons loathe themselves. Self-hate doesn’t end well, usually.
Again, to me the mass rapes have been a huge shock. Those poor, poor girls used in the thousands as something less valuable than a floor mop… and the establishment being basically okay with that. It’s something unfathomable to me, a complete Nietszchean inversion of all values.
To me, even more than the fact itself, it’s the lack of a reaction, the total numbness, that shows that Britain’s spirit is competely void and exhausted.
Stella, I think you are being a bit harsh on us Brits regarding our culture, most people love such things dearly and do all they can to preserve them. Here in Bromsgrove we have a Court Leet ceremony and a town crier amongst many others. It is different in London, being so multicultural. Maybe you should visit other places more often.
Stella I very much enjoyed your article , although I probably disagree with you on a number of things, but on Asahi we are agreed ..Cheers!....Also on your interesting take via Sumo on integration and loss of culture, particularly with the connivance of elites , I would say particularly but not exclusively from the Liberal/Left.
My wife, who is from India, gets frustrated every time she watches the news depicting every type of cultural attack on British Values. It totally enrages her, "Britain used to rule a quarter of the world, what are they doing to themselves now?, how come they've become so stupid?" she repeatedly says. Her disappointment is sad to see. I think she would very much agree with your position on having something solid to integrate into.
Britain's culture was probably as strong as it ever had been after the war, despite the rationing and unemployment. Why then was it damaged over the following decades, and Japan's was not?
My interest in this is personal as well. The lack of interest in things like these just helps creat a more beige world. There are just so many counties in England and Scotland that have very little to actually define themselves by when you visit them. But then you go to the local county museum and you find there are loads of little trinkets or some weird tradition/saying/object by a local enthusiast historian in some little book at a pub.
I remember when I last went to Sussex. I found out there was an old drinking vessel called a Sussex pig that people put fancy booze in and gave as a wedding gift. They also had a saying “we won’t be druv” which roughly means “we’ll won’t be told what to do”. What’s more integral to the spirit of a place like Brighton than that? And yet at the gift shops could I find a Sussex Pig with “We won’t be druv” on it? No where to be seen. Most of the locals didn’t even know what they were. They are apparently still made but they might as well not be anymore looking around.
Thinking about Canada and what our culture might look like... Hockey, enormous amounts of open nature space, camping, shovelling snow, curling.
I was born in the 80s, so I don't know what Canadian culture has been like historically, but I think Toronto was called "Toronto the Good" after it's strict, cloistering Victorian morality. As religiosity waned we lost the culture of going to church on Sunday, and even all shops being closed on Sunday (until the late 80s in Ontario I believe?). My impression from years later is that my home town was a place where people worked factory jobs, watched sports and raised their kids.
I think Canadian culture is things like sports (hockey, curling), nature, road trips and cultural music. It's a pretty simple country, I think. Toronto is complex and has lots of things going on and I love that by comparison to my home town. But we just don't have 1000-year traditions here for people to integrate into, though I think that people do assimilate into hockey and basketball, maybe a bit into Canadian Football.
I'm not sure if our culture can offer something so amazing that newcomers are going to shed their existing cultures for ours. I'm not sure how to feel about that, but I think we should definitely fund Curling and our national parks and keep our wilderness as wild as possible. I love seeing people from all kinds of geographic backgrounds in our incredible public camp grounds enjoying the outdoors!
If Japan's population keeps falling at this rate then they may lose a handful of General Assembly seats come the next UN map redistribution. 2031 could be interesting, especially if Xi and Modi get their way with abolishing independent redistricting. The liberal democracies could be in real trouble.
"Race slop" or not, if all it takes for you to be British (and not "English," God forbid) is a piece of paper from the government saying you're British, then British culture is going to disappear and be replaced by globalist slop. I'm American; I know. Every highway exit in my country is identical.
And I wouldn't be worried about birth rates. The human species is simply being culled in favor of people likely to have grandkids. To my observation the Japanese really enjoy being Jjapanese and I'd expect birth rates will eventually to get back to replacement, which is all that has to happen.
I love the way you framed this nuanced topic through the lens of sumo. Great article! Lots to think about
oh thank you Stephen :-)
At least the Brits are still waxing strong with their Monarchs and Monarchy, even if it appears breaking apart at the seams and seems more exclusionary than inclusive. No?
yes, but equally I believe it is the British elite that often denigrated expressions of Englishness that were more folk as ‘lowly’ and crash
I think Britain is lost for good. It's a big bereavement. The turning point was when the largest peacetime mass rape in Europe was basically glossed over. And this was more than ten years ago.
eeh we disagree
I hope you are right and I’m wrong, but Britain seems to be in a deep, deep identity crisis, right now. You yourself, you say that Britons loathe themselves. Self-hate doesn’t end well, usually.
Again, to me the mass rapes have been a huge shock. Those poor, poor girls used in the thousands as something less valuable than a floor mop… and the establishment being basically okay with that. It’s something unfathomable to me, a complete Nietszchean inversion of all values.
To me, even more than the fact itself, it’s the lack of a reaction, the total numbness, that shows that Britain’s spirit is competely void and exhausted.
Stella, I think you are being a bit harsh on us Brits regarding our culture, most people love such things dearly and do all they can to preserve them. Here in Bromsgrove we have a Court Leet ceremony and a town crier amongst many others. It is different in London, being so multicultural. Maybe you should visit other places more often.
Stella I very much enjoyed your article , although I probably disagree with you on a number of things, but on Asahi we are agreed ..Cheers!....Also on your interesting take via Sumo on integration and loss of culture, particularly with the connivance of elites , I would say particularly but not exclusively from the Liberal/Left.
My wife, who is from India, gets frustrated every time she watches the news depicting every type of cultural attack on British Values. It totally enrages her, "Britain used to rule a quarter of the world, what are they doing to themselves now?, how come they've become so stupid?" she repeatedly says. Her disappointment is sad to see. I think she would very much agree with your position on having something solid to integrate into.
Britain's culture was probably as strong as it ever had been after the war, despite the rationing and unemployment. Why then was it damaged over the following decades, and Japan's was not?
because the British elites were afraid of the populous which led to revolutions and wars in other countries, so overstretched and overcorrected
My interest in this is personal as well. The lack of interest in things like these just helps creat a more beige world. There are just so many counties in England and Scotland that have very little to actually define themselves by when you visit them. But then you go to the local county museum and you find there are loads of little trinkets or some weird tradition/saying/object by a local enthusiast historian in some little book at a pub.
I remember when I last went to Sussex. I found out there was an old drinking vessel called a Sussex pig that people put fancy booze in and gave as a wedding gift. They also had a saying “we won’t be druv” which roughly means “we’ll won’t be told what to do”. What’s more integral to the spirit of a place like Brighton than that? And yet at the gift shops could I find a Sussex Pig with “We won’t be druv” on it? No where to be seen. Most of the locals didn’t even know what they were. They are apparently still made but they might as well not be anymore looking around.
Thinking about Canada and what our culture might look like... Hockey, enormous amounts of open nature space, camping, shovelling snow, curling.
I was born in the 80s, so I don't know what Canadian culture has been like historically, but I think Toronto was called "Toronto the Good" after it's strict, cloistering Victorian morality. As religiosity waned we lost the culture of going to church on Sunday, and even all shops being closed on Sunday (until the late 80s in Ontario I believe?). My impression from years later is that my home town was a place where people worked factory jobs, watched sports and raised their kids.
I think Canadian culture is things like sports (hockey, curling), nature, road trips and cultural music. It's a pretty simple country, I think. Toronto is complex and has lots of things going on and I love that by comparison to my home town. But we just don't have 1000-year traditions here for people to integrate into, though I think that people do assimilate into hockey and basketball, maybe a bit into Canadian Football.
I'm not sure if our culture can offer something so amazing that newcomers are going to shed their existing cultures for ours. I'm not sure how to feel about that, but I think we should definitely fund Curling and our national parks and keep our wilderness as wild as possible. I love seeing people from all kinds of geographic backgrounds in our incredible public camp grounds enjoying the outdoors!
If Japan's population keeps falling at this rate then they may lose a handful of General Assembly seats come the next UN map redistribution. 2031 could be interesting, especially if Xi and Modi get their way with abolishing independent redistricting. The liberal democracies could be in real trouble.
yeap
"Race slop" or not, if all it takes for you to be British (and not "English," God forbid) is a piece of paper from the government saying you're British, then British culture is going to disappear and be replaced by globalist slop. I'm American; I know. Every highway exit in my country is identical.
And I wouldn't be worried about birth rates. The human species is simply being culled in favor of people likely to have grandkids. To my observation the Japanese really enjoy being Jjapanese and I'd expect birth rates will eventually to get back to replacement, which is all that has to happen.
but the trend in Japan does not seem to be stopping? what gives you that hope?
History is cyclical not linear. Animal populations shrink and expand all the time.