I consider myself a patriot you know. Really. There's so much to admire and love about our nation - be it geographically, industrially and culturally - I wouldn't know where to start (well alright then, perhaps the Beatles). I can enjoy and celebrate our national identity, but I'd argue that a large part of it – as in ALL cultures - is fabricated to a certain degree. The consequence of this is rigidly fixed iconography and a romanticised idea of nationality, often to the detriment of reality. A patriot recognises this. He or she will wallow in fictional fancies of patriotic pride full in the knowledge that postcard perfect idealism is just that. A patriot takes pride in their country, a nationalist takes the credit, and the first thing to suffer is their humanity.
Britain’s dominant religions, creeds, beliefs and of course, royalty has constantly evolved over the centuries (as an island nation this is somewhat inevitable), out of which the “British” caricatures have been carved. The bowler-hatted businessman, string-vested working class pub-frequenter and the tea-drinking toff all represent the British as an exclusively white English man. And it’s this cartoon vision from which the insidious notion of the “indigenous British” was born, a disingenuous term that attempts to intellectualise plain old racism as some kind of tribal struggle.
Fervent nationalism, since its inception in the 70's, has sought to "return" our country to a time that never even existed. And should it succeed, we all lose.
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