Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ayase" data-source="post: 535997" data-attributes="member: 183">Maybe it's just a question of semantics, but I don't really feel much of a sense of pride in anything I haven't personally had a hand in. I mean I guess, as an individual who makes up 1/66000000 of British society we all bear some level of responsibility for making Britain what it is, but the groundwork was laid thousands of years ago and is an ongoing process which makes my overall contribution to "Britishness" very minuscule indeed. I do feel that connection and identification you talk about, which is kind of a tribal thing and in some ways inevitable I suppose - When you're born and raised in a society you're going to identify more closely with that society than any other, just as people often do with more local communities, religions and ethnic groups. But pride? I don't know. The kind of pride people seem to find in these groups strikes me as somewhat vicarious, like if [person] belongs to [group] I also belong to, then their achievements are somehow also mine? I don't get that. People's achievements are their own - If Mo Farah wins a marathon or James Dyson wins a design award I in no way contributed to that, so I don't feel that sense of pride a lot of people seem to feel when other British people do well.Despite my constant criticisms of this country and the way it's been headed in modern times though, I do at least feel fortunate to have been born and raised here - We have a lot of opportunities. Our native language is one of the most widely spoken and understood in the world. Our citizenship and passports are pretty powerful. Our education system, while far from perfect, at least is fairly rounded and not as lacking or as biased as in many developed countries. While certainly not remotely economically equal (one of the worst things about Britain, and getting worse) people here are at least largely socially equal regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality. And all that feeds into the development of that vibrant culture you describe that British people create and enjoy. Those are all positive things about this country for sure, and worth remembering even when offering reasonable criticism of the worse aspects of our society.</blockquote>

Verification