Friday, November 14, 2008

Multiculturalism Drops the Mask

The council of Caerphilly, Wales has instructed municipal employees to avoid using the word "British":

The idea of “British” implies a false sense of unity – many Scots, Welsh and Irish resist being called British and the land denoted by the term contains a wide variety of cultures, languages and religions.
The advocates for multiculturalism have admitted what many of us have known all along. The entire point of their enterprise is to divide people into ever-smaller tribes, to emphasize our differences and make them points of conflict.

A sense of identity as "British", transcending tribal identities, uniting people under the common culture of Anglo-Saxon common law, Greco-Roman natural philosophy, and Judeo-Christian ethics, fueled the United Kingdom to become the preeminent power in the world. The "American" sense of identity, on the same foundations, allowed a former British colonial possession to take her place.

The name "Britain" itself comes from "Britania", the name the Roman Empire gave the province. A famous Roman maxim is "Dividae et impera" ("Divide and conquer"). Only by being divided into petty squabbling factions can we be defeated.

4 comments:

  1. Paules says,

    Excuse my intrusion, sir. I thought the Welsh, Irish and Scots were the British? What comes later is properly known as Anglo-Saxon. And the Angles gave their name to Angle-land. Also known as England. It's all backwards and upside down by my reckoning. I'm quite sure of my history. The Catholic Celtic Church sent missionaries to convert the heathen Anglo-Saxons. I don't mind a dollop of Judeo-Christian morality in my gruel. I'm totally willing to swallow a dash of Greco-Roman philosophy in the mix. Really, all in all it makes for a nice blend. Multi-culturalism? Heya! Hell yeah! Why not? Judeo-Christian morality, Judeo-Christian ethics and Anglo-Saxon law. Multi-culturalism you can believe in. Huzzah!

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  2. Somewhere in there I missed Greco-Roman philosophy. But it only shows what happens when you're deep into the bottle of Brittanic spirits (aka whiskey).

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  3. Paules, originally the Romans used "Britaniae" to refer to what are sometimes (to the consternation of the Irish) called the "British Isles", with "Albion" naming the larger one now comprising England, Scotland, and Wales, and "Hibernia" for Ireland. Eventually, though, the name was applied to the Roman-governed province that included only part of Scotland and none of Ireland. During that time, the Angles, Saxons, etc. had not yet moved to "Angle Land"; so at the time, the "Britons" would indeed have been Scots, Welsh, and perhaps Irish, depending on the degree of inclusiveness intended by the term.

    But the Germanic tribes did come, and the Anglo-Saxon common law became the basis for a legal system that was exported to the world, including 49 of the 50 states of the USA (Louisiana, based on the Code Napoleon, being the sole exception) and the District of Columbia. The modern meaning of "British" would have to at least include all of England, Scotland, and Wales, and in some senses the Channel Islands and Northern Ireland.

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  4. D*MN.

    I learn a lot from you guys! Now I'm going to have to read up on my (British/English/Anglo/Saxon/Roman/German/... Oh, what the hay!!!)... history some more!

    I'm almost ready to cry uncle!

    ReplyDelete

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