Being British...

It’s natural to want to be part of a community and to feel a belonging with others that share similar experiences. Individually, we define ourselves as being part of different types and sizes of communities, and it’s natural to feel pride in being part of that community. It might be the village/town of your birth. Your sports team. Your county. Or the country of your birth.

All sorts will determine what community you feel a belonging to. Shared experiences, shared cultures, shared values etc. The context will also matter.

I don’t think it’s silly to feel pride in your country. Yes it might defined by lines on a map, but we have a lot in common with other Brits. We speak the same language, enjoy the same sports, the same music, watch the same TV etc. Of course there’s variations within, just as there’s smaller and smaller communities within, but we generally have a lot more in common with those in our own country than communities that live on the other side of the world. Feeling pride in belonging to that community is natural.

 

This is exactly how I feel.

 

I understand the human need to feel that way, our species has come from tribal origins and that continues to this day.
I just ment that when you sit back and take a rational view of it the inhabitants of one part of the planet are scarcely distinguishable from the inhabitants of the another part.

 

There is a big difference between patriotism - pride in your country good or bad - and nationalism - thinking your country is the best because *reasons*.

You can be patriotic and hate some of our history - someone previously mentioned our role in stopping the slave trade, but we also industrialised it (via Wentworth-Fitzwilliam who signed the Peace of Utrecht) and the tide was already turning with a few countries already banning it including a few of the target markets in North America. But slavery was finally banned in the Empire in the 1920s (in Sierra Leone) and many of the "elite" in British society are still living on the money made during the slave trade.

The national anthem probably also needs ditching - especially as one verse celebrates killing the Scots!

 

Thats the bit I'd keep! (Joke)
Yes I remember when England players were criticised for not singing it. I wouldn't, in fact I've been to many Englans games and I never sing it.
Doesn't do much for me being a Atheist who doesn't believe we should have a Royal family anymore.

 

I don't know if you've heard of the theory of intergenerational homogeneity? - basically, it suggests that each generation today has more in common with the same generation in others countries than it does with other generations in its own country. So teenagers in the UK are more aligned in views, outlooks, etc with teenagers in USA, Germany or Japan than their parents...

People started in family groups, which grew to tribes, then villages, towns, cities and countries for protection - this was over a few thousand years. It is inconceivably to me that the next steps won't be continental alliances, then planetary if/when we expand outwards.

 

I believe the UK government were still paying compensation to slave trader families and their descendants until 2015. Over 180 years of payments to pay off £20m at 1833 values. I'm not sure how much former slaves and their families got over the same period, but I can hazard a rough guess.

 

Good point, I guess in light of recent events, Englishness does seem more pertinent.