Robot Emperor
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Edited Apr 27, 2015, 13:29
Re: 'Great' Britain
Apr 27, 2015, 12:56
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"Great" Britain actually dates back to the Norman conquest and has nothing to do with boasting about military prowess or anything else. Breton in France was the "Little" Breton and Britain was bigger. Breton was still known as a haven that Britains escaped to during the conflict with the Saxons.
More to do with how our new owners viewed their property in the 11th Century.
Poverty (even the relative version we currently have here) breeds all sorts of foul ideas and opinions. At least the economic jealousy version of racism is emanating from some of my compatriots exiled down here in the lower orders. As the Jews have found at various times in their history, its when you piss off the more respectable strata of society that the real carnage starts...
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Captain Starlet
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Re: 'Great' Britain
Apr 27, 2015, 14:07
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Robot Emperor wrote: "Great" Britain actually dates back to the Norman conquest and has nothing to do with boasting about military prowess or anything else. Breton in France was the "Little" Breton and Britain was bigger. Breton was still known as a haven that Britains escaped to during the conflict with the Saxons.
More to do with how our new owners viewed their property in the 11th Century.
Poverty (even the relative version we currently have here) breeds all sorts of foul ideas and opinions. At least the economic jealousy version of racism is emanating from some of my compatriots exiled down here in the lower orders. As the Jews have found at various times in their history, its when you piss off the more respectable strata of society that the real carnage starts...
I think you're missing my point a bit there, I'm not talking about the name 'Great' just what made the country great. For me the fact that we're a mongrel nation mixed from bits of all over the place (essentially multicultural) is what makes this country great. I don't care about armies or whatever, for me the origins of the country are far more worthy than the end result.
Can't say I disagree with the second paragraph, I was listening to someone say, a few years ago, that economic depression always brings rise to more extremists as they need someone to blame. Certainly rings true for what I've seen, and probably a lot more
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Robot Emperor
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Re: 'Great' Britain
Apr 27, 2015, 14:12
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Not missing your point at all, just trying to add to an interesting rambling conversation.
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Captain Starlet
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Re: 'Great' Britain
Apr 27, 2015, 14:26
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Ah sorry, slept since I last posted :)
I kind of lost interest after the Normans, some nice architecture but too much faffing about and not enough jousting!
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Robot Emperor
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Re: 'Great' Britain
Apr 27, 2015, 14:31
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Do find it funny though. What put the "Great" into Great Britain? That we were successfully invaded by a region of France...
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Captain Starlet
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Re: 'Great' Britain
Apr 27, 2015, 15:12
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This is why I put Great in commas, what can be considered to make the country great is what's conveniently ignored by the people who claim to be 'patriots' etc. I've asked them a number of times to name something indigenous to Britain and every single time no answer.
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Robot Emperor
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Edited Apr 27, 2015, 16:38
Re: 'Great' Britain
Apr 27, 2015, 16:37
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Nationalism is relatively recent, mid 18th century, and has always battled with a class sympathy that crossed national borders (the famous question from the Waverley novel where he seems to be protecting English noblemen from the Scottish hordes whilst cheerfully killing the English yeomanry - it being obvious that ones natural allegiance as a gentleman was to ones class).
Winston Churchill stated that the failure of Britain to get involved in the Spanish Civil War against Franco was another example of the British Establishment letting their class interests get in the way of national interest.
Globalization could be seen as a return to ones class being more important than ones nationality, that the sudden upswing in racist belief across Europe (Britain is not isolated in this at all), could be the death throws of nationalism. Not good or bad in itself but a victim of ever evolving capital and its changing needs. Class consciousness capable of throwing up its own evils.
I am capable of being horribly patriotic, but not about stuff that many others know or care about, Putney debates, Royal Society, Barrows Boys, 18th Century Scientists etc...
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