So what does it mean to be English?

It is almost boring to hear the debate, it goes round and round in circles batted by idiots on every side.

While people debate what it is to be English let us look at another ethnicity. What does it mean to be Jewish?

For some reason people struggle with defining English and yet use the word "Jew" like it's a rock solid identity. If Jew is rock solid then so is English.

Here comes the shock. There is no such thing as a Jew!

Looking at the etymology Jew comes from the word Judah which spans a history from about 1000BC to 500AD when the Israelite kingdoms fell. After 500AD there are no Jews and no Israel.

Jews come from the Israelite tribes but so do other people like the Samaritans. An Israelite is not necessarily a Jew then. And a Hebrew by the same logic is not necessarily a Jew either. Jews cannot claim these.

Jew also means someone who follows Judaism. And this is a mess also. The gods of Judaism all come from the wider area and again many tribes follow Yahweh not just Jews. The claim that Jews invented monotheism is just nonsense. Monotheism exists across the planet, and often in more sophisticated ways than in the Middle East.

Clearly Exodus 20 does not deny a pantheon of gods it just says that Yahweh will punish you if you don't place him first.

Hinduism has the exact same with Ganesh who requires worship first before any other god. But this is not Hinduism's idea of Monotheism. Everything issues from the founding principle of ॐ. This is a central unifying principle prior to even gods. How much more sophisticated is that than Middle Eastern thinking and something that predates Judaism too.

So Judaism is a rag tag of ideas drawn from the general Middle East. But it gets worse. The followers of Judaism then invent a mythology about Moses and exoduses and promised lands none of which is true.

And then if you look at the spread of "Jews" this occurs through conversion and assimilation of multiple groups that have nothing to do with Israelites or Hebrews to produce a mixed ethnic group of people adhering to a made up religion which shares its God with other groups. The reemergence of "Jew" as a real entity is just a political movement in the 1800s drawing on a vague history, ethnicity and mythology. It is a nonsense. That the Germans took offence at this racist political chimera closing ranks in the midst of Europe is not entirely unsurprising.

Now back to English. People like to use these same arguments above to suggest the English are not a people. Their ethnicity is mixed, their beliefs, history and culture is not clearly defined. Well you can't have it both ways either the English and the Jews are not an equal people or they both are.

So let us say that Jews and English are a people. What are the English?

It looks irrelevant but this is an English company making chocolate eggs. Eggs are an ancient English symbol of fertility and rebirth pre-dating Christianity. The hatching of a chick from the egg in spring is seen to capture the abundance of nature and the gift of life. It has profound meaning that goes to the heart of English. English Christianity built upon this to create the festival of Easter that sees the rebirth of Jesus and his defeat of Death. Easter is taking the ideas of Middle East and remoulding them in an English way. There is an English way!

Speaking of the assimilation of Christianity into English ideas the 3 Kings is English. Partly this comes from the 3 gifts but the gospels don't specify how many Wise Men and they definitely were not Kings. I believe this comes from the very ancient Mid-Winter festival where the 3 kings was the name of the star sign now called Orion's Belt and used to find Sirius and the point of sunrise. This sun argue is the origin of the Star in the East. True or not we are pointing out that there is a very distinct English culture predating Christianity which absorbed Christianity. English Christianity did not come from the Middle East any more than English Balti curry comes from India. 

England is famed for its gentle rolling and beautiful landscape that has inspired poets and artists and mystics for centuries. In Roman times this was the land shrouded in mist and legend.

 

But this particular river (The Thames) and field is of other significance. On 15 June 1215 Magna Carta was signed here which is recognised as the first time in human history that State Law was elevated above all individuals. No one after Magna Carta was outside the Law. Obviously no one has ever been above God (although many made claims that they have divine authority as the Jews erroneously appear to believe of themselves today) but this was an elevation of Law over the individual and now a cornerstone of Western civilisation. This is England and captures key elements of English culture that we don't like tyrants and prefer to live in peace as fellow men, shoulder to shoulder.

I will always remember this gentleman at the Anti-War protest in 2003. He makes a multi-level statement about the war and England. 

There is a large English community of people in this Island who are aloof to all the hype and nonsense of war. This goes back to the Iron-age and before. Herodotus records the day a delegation of 2 Celts from Britain visited to see Alexander the Great in his tent. These tall red haired gentlemen were introduced but did not say much and appear to have left rather unimpressed by this small unsubstantial wanna be emperor. Compare that with the fanfare that official history gives the man! English have always have a contempt of power preferring dry wit and aloofness to grand displays and bold reactions. It is so deeply inbred into the English to be slow to act and patient in the face of adversity. We are an truly ancient people; let time do your work. So while George W. Bush smashed up the Middle East a large proportion of England were happy to let the whole thing blow over. Typical American hype, hot headedness and hysteria.

Something I almost forgot to mention but cannot be missed out of a discussion of the English is the local public boozer. Traditional English communities have 2 centres (or perhaps 3 if you include the Chip Shop): the church and the pub. This is where the community will regularly meet to chat and drink beer. Beer has a very ancient history in this country and even in my life time came from literally thousands of established breweries each with very unique tastes. The idea that the community have a shared house to meet is very much at odd with the modern state desire to break up community and isolate individuals and one wonders how the English have allowed this authoritarian state to dominate in this country. I personally blame Winston Churchill who was only half English and the rest American for allowing the UK to become a vassal of Washington and I can see the Americans wanting to eradicate English culture and identity as they have their own native people and culture. But down the pub is where you really become English. 

Another feature of the English is their love of animals. This may well hark back to the culture that gave us chocolate eggs when nature was central and embedded in the culture. I remember my grandmother telling me the names and folklore surrounding plants and flowers that we found on walks. And walks are another aspect of this culture with its appreciation for the outdoors and nature. There is also a kindness inherent in this, but an unusual one. I remember a politician saying that there can be any number of human abuses but their letter box is especially full when an animal is hurt. This is particularly English. Where in the world do you get a Society for the Protection of Birds.

There is a huge list here of England's calm and balanced approach to life which spawned the creation of the international phenomenon of the Gentleman upon which the world's largest Empire was built. People in the Empire were not just smashed down by overwhelming power, there was a lot of respect for the dutiful and fair governance of the English.

However all that said this is one side of England. The English has been victims of huge abuses. In the 1st Century AD the Romans laid waste the large parts of England and specifically wiped out the Druidic culture that has unified England for 1000 years. 1066 when the Saxons fell to the Normans had the English enslaved, imposing castles were built across the country and the Tower of London was built as a symbol of the brutal oppression. This occurred again with the Georgian take over of England. Historically called the "Glorious Revolution" in 1688 the Dutch turned England into a Capitalist slave colony. Property became the new religion and people were executed for even stealing a slice of bread. Letters written to Europe at the time describe England as being the most brutal place the world has ever known. While Capitalism has been somewhat ameliorated it was this revolution and economic system that drove the creation of the Empire and the subjugation of the the world. If you ask children anywhere in the world now what they want to do with their lives they will say they want to "work." And while in many cases the dream is to start a company and be an owner of business that really means take the personal risks until their company is taken over by Capitalists. For the majority of the world now, even more than under the British Empire our life is spent in the service of Capitalism and Capitalists. This all comes from the "Glorious Revolution." Perhaps the English could have done the world a greater service by opposing Dutch William of Orange at the outset. Perhaps our greatest mistake.

So the story of England is not a rosy one. But inside this history the English exist as a real people and maintain an ethnic and cultural identity since the last ice age and even before. The dismissal of this and the failure to recognise and protect it is basically genocide every bit as heinous as that which the Jews are endlessly complaining about.

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Now I say there have been English living in England since before the last Ice Age. Here are the bones of someone living in what is now Gower Peninsular, Wales 30,000 years ago. The Welsh claim them for themselves and so are not English. But I wonder if things are getting unnecessarily political here. We are not Jews in this country and we have more to our identity and shared heritage than modern politics. These bones belonged to someone who very probably shared the same proto-culture and identity that we have today. That said who can tell how much that culture differed from the Continent which in those days was not separated by the Channel. But through DNA people alive in England can trace themselves back to this person and we can presume that elements of their culture and attitudes have been handed down over the 1000s of years, or at least been the foundations for what has developed.   

 

More recently 8000 years ago this man lived in what is now Somerset. Ironically lactose intolerant his final resting place is where the world famous Cheddar Cheese is now matured. Another deeply English tradition. Much has been said of his skin colour: are English dark skinned? Well your culture and identity is on a pretty thin basis if your skin colour is all you have to go on. It would be interesting if he walked into a pub what people would make of him, and whether modern English would recognise aspects of his outlook, manner and personality as English. Perhaps he might make a joke that the English would instantly recognise as English.

There is a stereotype put around by certain politicised people that English exists in "far right extremist white supremacists." I have met 10,000s of English and only ever met one of these! From a simple empirical study that is 0.01% of English fit this stereotype. The irony of course is while the anti-racists are trying to get people to look beyond superficial characteristics to see the people behind them, they label an entire race and ethnicity with a single stereotype. In my case he was a short red-haired chap who thought that Black people did not belong in the UK and Cheddar Man rather challenges that view. But also Cheddar Man does not challenge that view because he is referring to people who get on a boat and travel to UK in a few days to enter a country full of people already. I think Cheddar Man would have migrated to a country that was mostly empty and would have had no choice but to interact and assimilate into the people that he did met.

The broad problem here as raised in the previous post is the disregard by immigrants for the native communities they are joining. Jews are famed for being unable to assimilate and this is why they never last long. Because modern Jews won't allow anyone into their communities they are not allowed into other people's communities and when they are the immigrant they get excluded. That is just logic, and I don't know why there is any confusion over this (perhaps obfuscation by Jews who want the best of both worlds: closed Jewish communities yet other people to be open to them). It is like opening the window. How on Earth do the Jews expect the air to just flow one way. If they want to be accepted then they must accept. They don't and they aren't. 

Well English communities are open, but there is a limit. They are open to people who want to join not people who want to replace which is really obvious and there is no real debate here. Those who wish to destroy, must themselves accept destruction. Those who wish to replace can expect to be replaced. "When in Rome do as the Romans" as the saying goes. If you come to England then actually like England, don't just export a patch of your own country. Anyone who wants to do that is better off at home. I have been on holiday with people who want steak and chips when they arrive. If you want that why not just go the pub on the corner? What is point of travelled abroad to get what you get better at home? Bringing home with you is not immigration it is invasion and does not regard the people you have come to meet. It will be met even with from peace loving English with disdain, non-cooperation and a harsh tongue. Obviously.