The Friday Five
Jul. 1st, 2019 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackhttps://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/88856.html
1. What is one of your favorite things about your country?
Oh! Um. Temperate weather. NHS, obviously. Countryside. Never being more than a few hours drive from the sea. Vegetarian food (it seems strange to praise British cuisine, but you should see everywhere else). A nation heavy with people who also find socialising just a little embarrassing :)
2. What is your favorite thing to do on your country's national holiday?
Ooh. No. No, no, no. No-one sensible wants to see British patriotism again. We don't have a holiday, the closest in England is St George's day (which is still pretty suspicious). Or "whenever England are playing in the [soccer] world cup".
3. What do you usually do for your country's national holiday?
See above. But if there were one, it would probably be mostly like another bank holiday, so, enjoy sunshine if appropriate, have an extra day of weekend, maybe have some beer?
4. What is your favorite national/regional ethnic dish?
Probably fish and chips. Or "chip shop chips", since I don't eat fish. I know that's not exclusive to this country, but it still seems quite quintessential, and is one I really appreciate.
5. Who is your favorite national hero and why?
Oh gosh, there are so many favourite Britons, but how many could I still bear to be associated with. Maybe Newton, because how many countries have a maths-themed hero?
And I have a soft spot for the retro personification of Britain (or varyingly, England), John Bull, mostly just because hes's a bit less well known now. But I find it sort of endearing that people saw themselves represented by someone bluff, strong, stubborn, maybe a bit bull-headed, down-to-earth, maybe a bit stupid. It's like, "What do you want to be seen as? Well, ok, I'll accept stupid but never let it be said I listen to reason,"
Which, well, may cause as many problems. But is very far from the dainty, effete stereotype I periodically see applied to this country. Apparently he's shown up in some "each nation characterised by a giant fighting robot" anime.
1. What is one of your favorite things about your country?
Oh! Um. Temperate weather. NHS, obviously. Countryside. Never being more than a few hours drive from the sea. Vegetarian food (it seems strange to praise British cuisine, but you should see everywhere else). A nation heavy with people who also find socialising just a little embarrassing :)
2. What is your favorite thing to do on your country's national holiday?
Ooh. No. No, no, no. No-one sensible wants to see British patriotism again. We don't have a holiday, the closest in England is St George's day (which is still pretty suspicious). Or "whenever England are playing in the [soccer] world cup".
3. What do you usually do for your country's national holiday?
See above. But if there were one, it would probably be mostly like another bank holiday, so, enjoy sunshine if appropriate, have an extra day of weekend, maybe have some beer?
4. What is your favorite national/regional ethnic dish?
Probably fish and chips. Or "chip shop chips", since I don't eat fish. I know that's not exclusive to this country, but it still seems quite quintessential, and is one I really appreciate.
5. Who is your favorite national hero and why?
Oh gosh, there are so many favourite Britons, but how many could I still bear to be associated with. Maybe Newton, because how many countries have a maths-themed hero?
And I have a soft spot for the retro personification of Britain (or varyingly, England), John Bull, mostly just because hes's a bit less well known now. But I find it sort of endearing that people saw themselves represented by someone bluff, strong, stubborn, maybe a bit bull-headed, down-to-earth, maybe a bit stupid. It's like, "What do you want to be seen as? Well, ok, I'll accept stupid but never let it be said I listen to reason,"
Which, well, may cause as many problems. But is very far from the dainty, effete stereotype I periodically see applied to this country. Apparently he's shown up in some "each nation characterised by a giant fighting robot" anime.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-02 10:05 am (UTC)I'm kind of surprised you like John Bull given those characteristics could be seen as the presiding genius of populism, Brexit, Churchill, etc but I'm pleased that you do. :-)
Yeah, that's a good description of why I was ambivalent about it. Indeed, I think you're right, I *do* object to those sentiments in the contexts I most often see them. I think JB just feels safely at a remove because he's an older symbol not widely used now.
I don't know how much that's "I'm being hypocritical by liking some tendencies I criticise elsewhere" and how much it's "there's lots of tendencies which have good aspects but are terribly bad when taken to excess"
I mean, I wouldn't have thought you'd like what I'd describe as populism either.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-02 10:21 pm (UTC)Yes, I think most people (me included) just see it as an excuse to have fun and do traditional things and tell an old story, which would also be absolutely fine in a national day! But at least if you delve into it it could be spun that way. ('Protecting our own' being probably generally more wholesome than 'crushing others').
"I mean, I wouldn't have thought you'd like what I'd describe as populism either."
I guess that tends on whether the person using the word means 'alt-right fascists' or 'all Brexit supporters' (or, for that matter, 'anyone who doesn't accept the neo-liberal centrist consensus'!
More seriously, I am generally quite pro 'the people know what's best'; 'values are more important than expertise' and quite firmly against 'educated people always know best how to run society' (outside specific, very limited areas e.g. 'vaccines work' and 'this is too complicated to give ordinary people a say'. I'm much more of the view Lewis puts forward in That Hideous Strength where it's the educated classes who can be 'gulled' - in this case by an authoritarian, eugenicist, devil-worshipping, organisation - and ordinary people with straight-forward values who recognise that locking people up for decades, brain-washing them, deciding who should breed and destroying things that have no value other than that people 'like' them is fundamentally bad and wrong, even if the people wanting to do this win (in the book) the philosophical/scientific arguments. Which I feel is very much in the spirit of John Bull.
In my current role-play campaign the players inhabit a large Lawful Neutral empire with an absolute monarch and the populists are a faction who want radical reforms such as a modicum of democratic representation at local level and in an advisory assembly. They're viewed with suspicion as subversives and potential traitors (one of the empire' main rivals recently had a democratic revolution). My players haven't yet decided their view on this.