...finally, on the British Empire.
Strange to witness one of the oldest and most successful of nations commit suicide without even being aware of what it's doing.
Strange indeed. And very sad.
[Update, a few minutes later]
You know, if the Saudis wanted to spend their money building Muslim hospitals in the UK (just as the Catholics have their own hospitals in the US), complete with restrictions as to how much hygiene is required on the part of the nursing staff, per sharia law, who could object to them orienting the beds in whatever direction they wished? The only people who would suffer would be the Muslims stupid enough to use their services.
But instead, because Britain, with its NHS (and other programs) has become a welfare state, it's a lot cheaper for them to spend the money bribing MPs to institute such nonsense in the public hospitals, so they can save their money for funding madrassas that encourage people to bomb the Tube.
This would seem to have parallels to the public school system, and the battles over what kind of "science" to teach in science classes. It is an intrinsic pitfall of state-supplied health and education. Not to mention other vital needs.
All my life I have been an Anglophile. Most of my ancestry comes from England. I have saved and planned my entire life to visit. I read British mysteries, watch Morse and Masterpiece and study English Literature. The ache I feel each time I read a piece on the Islamification of the UK is palpable. It seems that Great Britain is about 100 years ahead of us in all things. I am painting a broad brush, but if you read the biographies of the great writers and also have a grasp of the history of the industrial revolution and the ascendancy of secularism, you can clearly see this is coming our way. I will probably be dead, but that gives me small comfort...
Jane... I lived for several glorious years in London in the early '90s. Afterwards, I realized that Americans who are Anglophiles are generally Americans who haven't lived among the British for any significant time. I enjoyed thoroughly my time in that lovely country saturated with history and natural beuaty.
The society, however, is repellent. I am not at all surprised to see militant Islam asserting itself in a way one doesn't see in the US. The Muslim in Britain, like other immigrants and all those who aren't in the Oxbridge network of elite , has always been an outsider. In such situations it's natural to take refuge in one's former cultural identity.
I live in Canada right now and see similar trends here, which Mark Steyn and others have written incisively about. Not surprising as Canada is essentially still a British colony in certain cultural ways as well as the way in which it marginalizes immigrants in the labor market. In Britain, however, the snobbishness of the white British establishment amplifies the militancy; it's a natural reaction of the outsider to those who hold power and look down on him.
The perversity of the British government is that because the British are loath to express patriotism or cultural superiority publicly (though they do it in private regularly) the grievance culture of Islamic immigrants has flourished.
I see no similar trend emerging in America and can't imagine that Americans would countenance it. So you may rest easy about that. Muslims in America are too busy participating in the meritocracy of the labor market and enjoying the fruits of their work to bother with fringe lunacy.
I encourage you to visit Britain when you're able to and hope that you enjoy it. As a sage once said, you'll find exactly what you're looking for. Look a bit deeper, however, and you'll see a very disturbing society.
Cheers.
We have in some swimming halls some days for women only and some days for men only and I don't think it's the destruction of the nation or our culture, more of a compromise.
There is a weekly baby swimming day at many pools too.
Bill: "Muslims in America are too busy participating in the meritocracy of the labor market and enjoying the fruits of their work to bother with fringe lunacy."
That is one of the best quotes I've ever read about how the US is internally dealing with its Muslim population. It speaks volumes.
As a Brit, I kind of do and don't agree with this.
I can't see then NHS going anytime soon, it is too deeply ingrained in the national conciousness for it to be politically feasible to abolish it (indeed, I went to an Adam Smith Institute reception a while ago, and even at a Libertarian think tank many people I spoke to were shocked by the very idea.
I don't think though that britsh society is 'sick'. I've known a few imigrants over the years and no one dare's treat them differently. And I do feel a backlash is slowly building up (witness the By-election result in a former safe labour seat). Hopefully the next government will be able to undo the worst excesses of welfarism
Andy
Hey, Brits: grow a spine!
"Never have so many owed so much to so few" still applies to those who helped us in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the present. It doesn't matter that their heritage and sincerity seems at odds with ours, as long as their goals are the same. The challenges we face are going to change our heritage and cultural views significantly if we are to win the long war and defeat the enemy of us all.
I don't recognize Bill's portrayal of London (or even England) at all from the time I spent there during the mid-nineties (not as a resident). You stayed in an upper middle class bubble in the Capital filled to the brim with almost every sort of variation good and bad? Dare I ask why? ^_^
How many adult Punk-Rockers with mohicans (mohawks) did you meet or see during an average week? It's my personal "normality" scale for London as they're the ones that stand out the most ^_^
I used to be an Anglophile, Jane, and I did live in England for a number of months, albeit some years ago. However, steady reading of Theodore Dalrymple and Melanie Phillips have been important factors in curing me of it.
Thank goodness for the First Amendment. It at least gives the U.S. a chance of avoiding some of the problems Britain and Canada's elites are causing.
Thanks, Guys. Really, I am feeling a little less hopeless. I may be a romantic Anglophile, but I am first and foremost a flatout American. When I visited Italy a few years ago, I loved it, took tons of pics, but cried when I got home, I was so glad to be back. This is such a great country.