Off Topic Does England have a culture any more?

Well I'm in the doghouse right now under my roof, and I have no idea why.

I guess some things never change.

 

Great picture mate.

Saw similar last night down in Sussex.

This is one beautiful country!!!

 

I can see what you're getting at mate but we're skating on very thin ice.

 

Yeh. Millimetres thick. But we'll get by. Because we do. It's who we are.

We're a nation of stupid, obnoxious, aggressive, nationalist, proud, generous, belligerent, charitable, stubborn, **** you!

This weekend, my wife and I were at the most weirdest, bohemian, outrageous wedding I've ever been to. It was also the best, most British weekend of my life. It was a celebration of the very best of us.

I'm so proud to be English, British, tonight.

 

i have been down on the beach since 9.30am only been in for about an hour after our carnival raft race today ,probably four thousand people watching ,very proud to be the chairman giving my all to preserve events like this which started in 1927 i am following in the footsteps of great people from our town we are one of the last bastions to still carry on which has been lost nation wide due to red tape,4 lifeboats in attendance ,coastguards ,first aiders ,crowd marshals ,lifeguards , a fantastic day in a fantastic part of the country..

 

And that's what makes us great ...... not the stinking X-Factor, who's screwing who on Eastenders or who's eating what insect on the Ant & Dec show.

Surely we're better than that.

 

It's threads like this particular one that make me proud to be a contributor to this forum. Some great comments and debate.

After living in North America for 17 of the last 21 years I can give a Canadian take on what being British means.

Just about everyone I have this conversation with says the same thing. "You Brits have an island mentality. Which means we will defend that island with everything we have". They never mentioned hooligans or football but the attitude that we will persevere through anything.

I guess that makes sense especially for the working classes of the UK. Coal mining and the steel industry to name 2 have taken a **** kicking but we never quit. That's what I think about when I think of the UK the never say die attitude.

 

I'm the "creative"/"cultured" type, though it probably doesn't show on this board. I had to leave the country to earn a living writing. The only sort of place that would employ me on a consistent basis in the UK... The pub trade.

Probably quite ironic when you look at smug's original post. Especially when you consider I moved to a place which is generally considered a cultural desert and picked up steady work within weeks.

 

I think we have lost our togetherness, for want of a better term, know thy neighbour as another, lots of things to blame for it, internet, TV, local and national government, high unemployment, ( those with jobs, even if its a **** job, looking down their noses at those without one), the press and countless other reasons.

When I was a lad, we had cubs, scouts, guides, jazz band, carnival where Concorde would do a flyover, places for kids to go for free during the holidays, I sed to be a member of the golf course, if I wasn't there I would be playing football, cricket or in the local Riley snooker hall or countless other things, I had a paper round, Mon to Sun, morning and evenings and I used to collect the cash, all for £7pw.

Now the scout building is knocked down, no carnival, I think they are bringing it back though with the tall ships coming, golf course is probably exorbitant, was £40 a year when I was a kid, it's probably close to that for one round now, snooker hall is Mecca bingo, cinema is a Wetherspoons, schools etc are shut in the summer.

Pubs are closing and being turned into shops, neighbours never really speak, we are saturated with different accents from around the world with TV and internet, we see different cultures so copy them, dress sense etc, press and news treat us like cattle.

I don't know what our identity is now in all honesty but it does seem to be everyone for themselves and **** those a bit less fortunate.

PS: it's 6am and im tired, if the above is a bit all over the place, then that's my excuse.

 

The Beatles wanted to be American. So did The Stones, and Led Zep. But in imitating the yanks they did so in a way that was uniquely British.

Rock n roll is true culture btw, **** the ballet and the opera. I'd rather spend two hours at the dentist than the opera ffs. Good thread though.

 

I have yet to hear a satisfactory definition of culture and I'm certainly not going to try and come up with one.

But is supporting a football team not part of the mix?
We have no mines but we still have our 'Big Meeting'.

Is being a fan of folk music not comparable to Opera?

Our Amateur Operatic Societies still belt out their G&S, (though rather less than they did).

Is 'pop music' really inferior to opera? Not according to Dame Kiri who claimed that her ambition was to sing like Tina Turner. (But Dame Kiri is of Maori extraction so can be excused as having more culture than she knows what to do with).

I know that, as a country, we produce more than our fair share of eccentric's.
A look at any of the distance races will prove the point, from gorilla suits to geriatrics tottering along.
This spirit is highlighted in the Para - Sports where, bearing in mind the size of our population, we excel.
Recently I read of a 93 year old who walked away from the micro light plane he had crashed.

Don't confuse the shallowness of youth with lack of culture.
This affected many of us in our time.
But we grow into things.
It's a natural enough order as we pass through phases.
For example, musically I went through the rock stage, Beetle-mania then was busy trying to look after my family .
Along the way I've ended up being a fan of very diverse, even oddball things, like ---Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, Wagner a Puccini, Domingo and Sinatra, Steeleye Span and Joan Baez, to mention just a few.

Artistically I prefer to look at 'The Old Masters' rather than 'Modern Art', but even here there are times that I'm intrigued.
I prefer though to look at great cabinet making.

Does any of this stick a label on me that says Cultures or Philistine?
I hope not.
I'm neither.
I'm an individual.
I'm just ME.

 

We are, but we do have a problem with radio and television, too much of it for a start, but its an education problem imo, give our kids a decent wide based education and they won't watch this sort of crap.

 

I'm sure we have cultural activities but what I'm struggling to see is a cultural identity, a national culture..

 

Its a two way thing, listen to any notable American bands or singers being interviewed, and most mention British counterparts.

 

Not sure we really need one tho', its a small step from there to blind patriotism and from what I see, we are better off without that. The last refuge etc. Freedom of thought and expression is a far more valuable goal. Hope this makes sense.

 

I suspect that our 'National Culture' will be the result of mixing all our local traits.

However WE are too close to see what the result is.

We need to ask 'Johnny Foreigner' that question, or perhaps some Ex Pat who has been away for a long time.

 

Well tbh, that's me which is part of the reason for asking the question.

I've been in the south of France for the last decade and around 17/18 years of the last 20.

I've come back to the UK and it's changed.

It seems many people's main 'hobby' is shopping and the second is talking about what's happened on the telly.

 

I fear that you, like me, are just suffering from advancing years.
Each generation thinks knowt of the youngsters coming along, as I well remember from lectures from an uncle of mine as I entered my teens. Ex Military, what he thought of Elvis is not to be repeated.

But to make my point I offer you this quote.---

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

This is not a new one.
There is some doubt but most put it as being from - Socrates (469–399 B.C.)