(no subject)

[johnny9fingers]

Happy Fourth of July.

The UK's bloody fault, that one. Something to do with taxation and representation, which is why you chaps now have lobbyists. (Strange how the worm turns and what was once seen as good is now viewed differently.) Now from a completely impartial position, the loss of the American colonies seems a good thing, but as with India, I still think everyone'd be better off with some of our chaps in charge.
(I may possibly accept my position may be influenced by the feeling of having drunk of the wine pressed from sour grapes.) 

An American chum of mine accused me of being ridiculously nationalistic: and it's true I think that to be born an Englishman is to have won the lottery of life. But I also think that the ideas behind the US constitution are some of the finest to ever find expression.

Life, love, and the pursuit of happiness should be inalienable rights to non-criminals, wherever the US writ runs.

So even if I mourn the loss of a small set of colonies, I celebrate the (official) Birthday of the Nation built on the US Constitution.
Mind you, we kept Canada until they really wanted out.... and when push came to shove, even Australia didn't completely sever it's ties.... Now if only we could patch things up properly with Ireland....

Be sure your sins will find you out.

Comments

[vlion.livejournal.com]

There's no reason not to be proud of one's country. Even if they are famous for boiling everything and driving on the wrong side of the road, hur hur.

[tripinthehead33.livejournal.com]

Sorry man, the English pissed off the Irish. It won't happen. Not in your lifetime anyhow. My uncles all learned from their mother how to use guns and send money back to Ireland to support the cause. They didn't quite pass along that kind of dedication to my cousins, but the sentiment is still the same. They don't even live in the same country either.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

My dear, I'm half Irish of the Feinian variety.
On my mother's side I count relatives in Crossmaglen and Teer, both in Co. Armagh.
It is in the nature of all English folk to be many parts of some other culture, and it has been, on and off, since before Roman times. We are, after all, a bastard mongrel people, with all the genetic advantages that accrue to such - health; genetic dispersion for advantage (as the Blessed Richard Dawkins tells in his missal 'On the Selfishness of Genes'); an hybrid culture which gave us an hybrid language, wherein (to use Eliot's phrase) it can move from the Romance to the High Gothic in the span of a single sentence.
Nasty, Piratical, and Ingenious is where we started....add charm and a classical education and you would tend to get what used to be regarded as the better bits of Englishness. Until our ship comes in that is: when we retire to the country, wear tweeds, and breed, hopefully with another bastard mongrel person that speaks our language and knows our codes.
That's all it takes to be an English person:
Speak our language,
Know and respect our codes.
To which I might add another, that pisses off the rest of the world: effortless superiority.
Quod erat demonstrandum: of course God is an Englishman. However, it ain't made easy by the fact that England has been around for a long time, and its codes are remarkably recondite, and to the outside observer, quite abstruse. Also there has been, over the years, precedent for just about any action one can think of.
Cut your wife's head off for you, sire?
Smother some poor innocent little princes in the Tower for you, Crookback, oh it's you in disguise, Bolingbroke, but the question still stands.
Abolish slavery for you sir?

To use the modern argot: we done lots of bad things man, but we're not quite the same folk we were then. But we will compete....lots of Irish Republican legend is now being seen for what it was really. Sometimes you have to build a nation, and sometimes you do better by concentrating on your opponents mistakes: but I feel such thinking is old and worn out now between Ireland and England, but perhaps not to the Irish-Americans....I have a cousin who was an organiser for Noraid: even in '94 he was talking about the need to reconcile both traditions in the North.
There's hope yet.

[tripinthehead33.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's changed. However, just like all of the bad concepts that are scattered around the world..there's bad blood there on both sides. Just like when you see a German person who runs into a Polish or Jewish person, it ends up awkward. Not all the time, but it does happen, and will happen until recent history fades into ancient history.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

I think the offer of a drink normally helps. Mine's a pint.

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

All wars must end someday.

I hope someday the US learns that.

... many of the people have. There's some ruddy fine people in the states even if their government is a bunch of wardriven madthings.

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

You're a clever lad.
Reading between the lines is one of the great talents.
Oh blast, now I've been obvious.