Am I wrong to think like this?

"British people and their efforts have made this country great."

In the realms of social privilege there's not much higher than being born a white male, in England, in the 20th century. Seriously, we have pretty much every advantage it's possible to have as a human being; safety,freedom,education,health,justice,peace,opportunity,so on and so forth.

Having these advantages, a certain proportion of our race want to deny the opportunity to others, often citing the damage they'd do to the 'English culture' by way of justification.

Assimilation of/by modern foreigners can only be judged once they are assimilated, surely. They are not invading hordes and they are still arriving in little numbers compared to the likes of the norman conquest, which saw a 150% population increase, mostly due to immigration.

I'm reminded of the Chris rock sketch where the black guy at the airport is happy because the muslim at the airport is now the feared one, and he's a part of the whole.

It used to be; blacks, Irish, pakis, chinks, poles.. But they're mostly fairly well integrated now, or at least accepted. So it's the turn of the somalis, libyans the romanians...Rocks airport muslim.

Ironically this is by people who have no real grasp of their ancestors, prior to the few generations they can search back through.

3200 bc takes you back as far as written recorded history goes, no family tree survives to prove their ancestry to this age. But according to some, none of that matters anyway because it's about the here and now.

Well it doesn't cut both ways, you either accept that;

'England, UK, GB,whatever' is a melting pot of past immigration and therefore is not pure and certainly not documented and that 'don't let them in' is a tad hypocritical.

or

You try and argue that england has some kind of distinct or identifiable heritage that isn't based solely on the landmass and it's occupants.

Our culture isn't in any way definable, that bag of cats has been looked at on Sheff forum before and to no useful conclusion.

Our language - mixed race, our customs-mixed race, our royalty-foreign, our ancestors - mixed race, yet our overall influence is huge.

Other cultures will impose themselves a little, some people will be segregated, their children and their children's children will however integrate.

Some aspects of their native culture may well survive to become part and parcel of the British 'culture'. Many will fall by the way side and be consigned to the history books. In fact any imported customs that are considered regressive are not going to make the cultural cut imo.

There'll always be little pockets of resistance to forward motion.

But I believe that the uk has been at the forefront of 'being great' for a long time precisely because we can argue and accept the differences of the people who live here while slowly yet deliberately pruning the chaff from the wheat.

What, over the coming years and generations do you think will survive this English form of cultural evolution and what will be cast aside?

Ancestry can be traced back through time by looking at DNA, no need for it to be written down.

Dont talk sense youll have the whole right wing SF troll brigade on yo ass

Dont talk sense youll have the whole right wing SF troll brigade on yo ass

And I'll happily stand next to psynuk and bat them away for the insignificance they are.

And I'll happily stand next to psynuk and bat them away for the insignificance they are.

Yes, because there's nothing at all ironic in defending immigrants (because we're all human) whilst denouncing people with whom you disagree as being "insignificant".

"British people and their efforts have made this country great."

 

In the realms of social privilege there's not much higher than being born a white male, in England, in the 20th century. Seriously, we have pretty much every advantage it's possible to have as a human being; safety,freedom,education,health,justice,peace,opportunity,so on and so forth.

 

There are poor and destitute white people in the western world, but I take your general point about the good place Britain and British are in at this time.

It didn't just happen overnight though, it took centuries to reach this point, in fact its only relatively recently that sanitation, a properly enforced rule of law and true democracy was granted to the masses.

A very good and though provoking opening post.

I think along with the continuity there is a great deal of change, but in U.K change tends to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

In spite of what is sometimes written on here, I do think that the British are tolerant and good humoured with a strong civic culture.

Along with the above, I think Britain has a great deal to be proud of, and as an example of this, in some countries things are codified and written, here things are 'understood' - perhaps because of our long history.

Since the second half of the 20th century, for the first time in history Britain can actually completely control who enters the country, the credible risk of invasion has gone. We can now cherry pick who we let in and choose who we keep out.

I'm all for (selectively) letting in outsiders which add something positive to British society, but sadly the powers that be have allowed the proliferation of cultures that set society back thousands of years rather than help us move forward.

The second half of the 20th century was the first time in history where Britain could actually completely control who enters the country, the credible risk of invasion had/has gone. We can now cherry pick who we let in and choose who we keep out.

 

I'm all for (selectively) letting in outsiders which add something positive to British society, but sadly the powers that be have allowed the proliferation of cultures that set society back thousands of years rather than help us move forward.

Which cultures?

Which cultures?

Don't play dumb. Try and be an openly gay Muslim, orthodox Jew, Hindu or a Roma Gypsie. Women are second class citizens in those communities too.

Yes there is homophobia and sexism amongst some Christians and the general native British population but you can't deny the huge strides that have been made. It is a different world now. Open homophobia is rare to see and the C of E has just legalised gay marriage. Fat chance of that with the other religions and the Roma.

Having these advantages, a certain proportion of our race want to deny the opportunity to others

Some do, yes. But ultimately it's about numbers.

To quote Michael Jackson, "it doesn't matter if you're black or white" (or Asian, Muslim, Oriental, Leprechaun or Vulcan).

A couple of examples.

Due to high demand and shortages of gas, we came very close (6 hours) to running out in 2013. [LINK]

More people, more demand.

Brown outs and black outs are projected to increase over the next 10 years [LINK]

More people, more demand.

Water supplies in the crowded (and popular) South-East are often stretched [LINK].

In 2012 the South-East was officially declared a drought area. [LINK]

More people, more demand.

Housing is in crisis and unless we start building more on our green and pleasant land there won't be enough to meet current, yet alone future demand.

More people, more demand.

It's all about the numbers. And numbers are colour blind.

Don't play dumb. Try and be an openly gay Muslim, orthodox Jew, Hindu or a Roma Gypsie. Women are second class citizens in those communities too.

 

Yes there is homophobia and sexism amongst some Christians and the general native British population but you can't deny the huge strides that have been made. It is a different world now. Open homophobia is rare to see and the C of E has just legalised gay marriage. Fat chance of that with the other religions and the Roma.

I'm openly gay lapsed Catholic, & my sexuality was hardly a cause for celebration when I was growing up

I remember well the legislative changes from the 1990s onwards & they were passed in the teeth of opposition from many 'Christian' Lords and bishops - and supported by Lord Waheed Alli, the openly gay muslim member of the House of Lords.

Yes he's in a minority at the moment, but one of a growing number of muslims who are coming out of the closet.