the negative side of cosmopolitanism
Today, while suffering from an aching arm due to a game of badminton, i headed down to the library and picked up a copy of "the spectator". great magazine i must add. and yes, i found something very very interesting: an article about multi-culturalism and Britain's self loathing written by Anthony Browne.
it basically spoke about how Britain, as it started to embrace cosmopolitanism more, it began to loose its identity, its sense of pride and achievement. it became a mere root-less melting pot. brits had started to try distance themselves from anything involving the "empire" and their history. it found out that a surprisingly majority of them didn't know that the brits invented the train and the steam engine. brits didn't know or rather didn't care about achievements long gone, what they gave to the world as some european commentor said.the gift of the english language and how it became the international lingua franca, how the modern wrld came about because of industrialization. its greatest creations: the US, australia, new zealand and canada are now stable, well off, peaceful democracies(well, presumably), its gift of organised sports to the world, football(soccer), modern tennis(yes the frenchies may have invented tennis' "first version" but the british evolved it somehow) so on and so forth. people just didn't like the idea of "isolating" migrants a people from different cultutres by being proud of their own culture, partly fuelled by the left-wing morons. it also provided what seemed to be a highly logical theory on why Britain seemed to be the only country in the world which got bombed by its own citizens: because brits hate themselves. one very good point was made: what's there to be ashamed about when you've had a great legacy and culture? you can embrace british pride and achievements and at the same time make newcomers to the country feel belonged as they write a new chapter in british history.