Friday 25 February 2011

Questions of coherence #1

Number one in an occasional series of grumblings, musings and squibs on the contradictions of contemporary orthodoxy...

....Why is it that the people who attack western values, or even deny their existence, often also believe that people from rich, coherent and confident cultures will spurn the latter in favour of adoption of those western values...

...Why do people who aspire to national characters and cultures breaking down and merging, also complain that american chains make every town look the same...

...Some suggest it is bigoted to seek to maintain a 'British culture' to British - or indeed dispute such a culture exists. One wonders how these people behave on holiday.

If holidaying in Spain, for example; do they stick to the Brit-pubs of the Costas, or do they prefer to immerse themselves in things with a more Spanish flavour? Visiting Italy, do they stick to McDonalds and Irish bars, or do they seek to sample what a society with an Italian character has to offer? Or perhaps they wander between Irish bars and Trattorias, between steak and kidney pie and tapas, without any particular distinction or intent, one not being differentiable from the other.

After all, presumably valuing Italy having an Italian culture or Spain a Spanish one, is racist. Unless of course, such cultures do not exist and Spain and Italy are in any case indistinguishable from Britain....

2 comments:

  1. Sir, I came across your comments on the Guardian, and enjoyed them very much. I hope we'll see more of them on your blog here, and feel free to have a look at mine. Keep fighting the guid fight!

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  2. Thanks. Been a bit slow in getting started; hope to gather some momentum soon but real life keeps getting in the way!

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