Are you proud to be British?

Tunney said:
Rome was no different at the very height of its powers (though obviously ~50% Roman rather than British :p). It prospered for hundreds of years this way.
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Rome started to collapse when it started to let in masses of un 'Romanised' Germanic tribes as opposed to previously when it had conquered, expanded and 'Romanised' those that it came across......
 
No, not particularly. It was an accident of genetics (and somewhat timing in my case) that I was born in the UK thus I see no more reason to be proud to be British versus being proud to be French, Canadian or German (which were the three other likely nationalities I might have been).
 
Caracus2k said:
There no need for the 'cuture' to change we just need to stop the free for all that is EU freedom of movement. I can go to a country like Japan and find mutual tolerance and a high degree of openness to culture and ideas..... Japan has a culture on late heavily influenced by American culture and has industry and business that has borrowed lots from the north American and European industries (and added a lot of its own innovations).

But the country is almost entirely mono racial. You don't need to have an open door to uncontrolled migration to have what you aspire to if fact I would say in the long run such a policy destroys the 'tolerance' and 'openness' you seek
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I agree, there’s no need for the culture to change, but is has/is (at least superficially). At the very least there is a perception that it has changed. Would it have happened if the government did what most other counties in the EU did when the Easter Europeans joined (set limits/restrictions on free movement)? Who knows. The past is the past, we can’t change it. We can change the future however and that is what we need to work on. Can we change that perception of intolerance and insularity that has grown around the UK in recent years? If not, and it continues to grow, then the UK is going to start hemmoraging talent and skills.
 
I feel that Britain has many things to be proud of, public health service, some sort of benefits system, a reasonable standard of living, I don't feel I'm in fear of my life when I walk down the street, people don't routinely shoot each other or carry guns and I feel that most of the time, we have come a long way since we enslaved people and waged war on natives. There have been a few blips recently but I hope we return to form once more.
 
LabR@t said:
Where as British kids are taught to be ashamed of our Imperial past
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So true. Not even just that - ashamed to be white! Not withstanding that most of the progressive advances across all aspects of society, including law, science, art and so on, have been fundamentally driven by Western Europe to a large extent for centuries. Oh the shame.
 
rare said:
This white guilt business is shameful stuff. It reminds me of autophagy, when an octopus goes mad and starts to inflict self-cannibalism.
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It's as bizarre as expecting current-day Germans to feel guilty about the Holocaust.

Feel free to help others who need help, as and when you can. But there's absolutely no need to feel "white guilt". It really is absurd.

I'm hoping he's just trolling, tbh :p I hope no-one really does feel "guilty" for being white, male, or "cis" :p
 
rare said:
So true. Not even just that - ashamed to be white! Not withstanding that most of the progressive advances across all aspects of society, including law, science, art and so on, have been fundamentally driven by Western Europe to a large extent for centuries. Oh the shame.
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I don't think kids are being taught to be ashamed to be white... what evidence is there for that?

I see various groups advocating for this and that, and I see a lot of social media bullocks, but social media gives all the crazies a platform, so it starts to seem normal.

Maybe I had good teachers at school (and it was a long while ago), but we were never taught to be ashamed of things we weren't responsible for. And honestly the Brits did a ton of **** in colonial times, and a lot of good stuff too. I can't take credit for the good, and I can't be ashamed of the bad.
 
chroniclard said:
Muslim immigrant Mohamed Muktar Jama "Mo" Farah knighted. Something we can all be proud of.
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Good for him and thoroughly deserved given the vacuous idiots that get honours these days. :)

Well if that doesn't show tolerance and a welcoming attitude then I don't know what does. But apparently we're all racists who hate Johnny foreigner and have a culture that's not worth saving.
 
The concept of being proud of achievements that you played no part in is quite difficult for me to wrap my head around.
 
Speaking to some of the younger people at work this week, 2 of them graduates they know nothing about the British empire at all. These are 22/23 year olds, bright kids. They said school etc taught them up to Henry VIII and ww2 nothing of our history between, now this to me seems like it's being done on purpose.
 
FoxEye said:
It's as bizarre as expecting current-day Germans to feel guilty about the Holocaust.

Feel free to help others who need help, as and when you can. But there's absolutely no need to feel "white guilt". It really is absurd.

I'm hoping he's just trolling, tbh :p I hope no-one really does feel "guilty" for being white, male, or "cis" :p
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White guilt is so weird because there's literally no one calling for it other than other white (usually liberal) people.

No one really says you should feel bad about what your ancestors might have done, or for being privileged.

What people do call for is similar to what happens in Germany. A recognition of the past and an effort not to repeat those same mistakes today. You don't see many people flying German flags, no pledge of allegiance type nonsense, Patriotism isn't really a thing like it is in other countries, they get hammered with holocaust education and documentaries on tv etc. etc.

Narj said:
Well if that doesn't show tolerance and a welcoming attitude then I don't know what does. But apparently we're all racists who hate Johnny foreigner and have a culture that's not worth saving.
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Can't tell if you're being serious?

An immigrant being knighted shows that we as a country are welcoming and tolerant?
 
FoxEye said:
It's as bizarre as expecting current-day Germans to feel guilty about the Holocaust.

Feel free to help others who need help, as and when you can. But there's absolutely no need to feel "white guilt". It really is absurd.

I'm hoping he's just trolling, tbh :p I hope no-one really does feel "guilty" for being white, male, or "cis" :p
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I think you can acknowledge that our treatment of other nations in the empire was appalling without feeling personally guilty about it.
 
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