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March 28, 2024, 08:59:23 PM

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What is indigenous white British culture?

Started by Chedney Honks, April 14, 2021, 12:48:35 PM

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Chedney Honks

I don't know what my culture is as a white British person.

For me, one of the richest experiences of life is engaging with other cultures through their music, humour, language, food, clothes, movies, painting, books, architecture, history, sights, videogames, attitudes, philosophy, recipe boxes and the like.

So obviously if I just say to myself what's all the white British examples of that then that's white British culture, right.

But I don't actually feel like a lot of the white British stuff of that is relevant to me in any way. I bet a lot of it does but maybe I'm too close to it to realise the expansive impact. That's why I'm asking the question, though. I have the stock answers but what is it to you?

The other thing is that G.Briton is at the forefront of globalism for many reasons, not least imperialist ones, so indigenous white British culture has adopted many elements from around the world such as tea, which makes it harder to delineate OG elements and cultural borrowing.

If I go to another country, the things I miss about briton are stuff like curry and humour and pubs but that's about it. Lake District, arguably. Once upon a time, fly-fishing but I don't do that any more. I used to would have said irreverence and disrespect of authority but now I think British people are basically not far off craven Stockholm syndrome slaves.


Poobum

Dragging big fuck off stones about and not telling people why.

JaDanketies

Quote from: John MajorFifty years on from now, Britain will still be the country of long shadows on county [cricket] grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers, and—as George Orwell said—old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mist.

frajer

Major will be pleased to learn that is definitely still the Orwell quote that springs to mind when considering modern Britain.

bgmnts

Covering yourself in blue paint, Celtic iconography, travelling to Ynys Mon to sacrifice your son to the gods and riding chariots.

Beyond that, no fucking clue. Its so far long ago, with no written history beyond Julius Caesar's diaries right? I'm sure there are lots of archaeological evidence and artefacts to show what ancient Britain and its people were like.

But that wouldnt be Britain would it (the combination of Scotland, Wales and England) so would you have to incorporate Saxons, Jutes and Vikings into this identity? God knows

JesusAndYourBush

Morris Dancers, Beefeaters, Cup of tea and a slice of cake, Fish & chips.


frajer

I've been ordering the excellent British folklore countryside zine Weird Walk over the past year and that's what comes to mind when I'm thinking favourably of Britain.

Twisted and gnarled trees, small scurrying creatures, blazing sunsets over meadows, ancient stones planted in fields, men dressed as straw giants hitting each other with jangly sticks. That sort of stuff. Mackenzie Crook's lovely Worzel Gummidge tapped into that well too.

Butchers Blind



JaDanketies

the only English culture you need is that we beat the Germans twice at war and then again at a World Cup match 55 years ago

Thomas

After several years away, the only things I miss are the few perfect square miles of peaceful village, forest, 'n' countryside where I used to live - though I'm sure all European countries have their near-precise equivalent locales.

Also Caramacs and the time I saw a Morris dancer in blackface on the bus to Derby.


druss

If you are white British and don't behave like Mr Bean then you are a traitor.

notjosh

Most of the good English culture is from the countryside/seaside. Brass bands, maypole dancing, summer fetes, village cricket, folk music, cottage gardens, pub chips. Also the lingering echoes of old English city culture, like music hall, are only to be found in fairly provincial places nowadays. The only ones I can think of that thrive more in an urban environment are snooker and men in shirts fighting outside an All Bar One.

bgmnts

Am I misunderstanding what indigenous means? Are English people indigenous?

Endicott

Yorkshire pudding and roast beef. Toad in the hole. Black cabs. Leafy lanes and rolling hills. Stabbed lords.

pigamus

Watching David Jason while eating a pickled onion.



Cuellar


Sherringford Hovis

Quote from: pigamus on April 14, 2021, 01:49:31 PM
Watching David Jason while eating a pickled onion.

In the bath. No true Britishman would eat a pickled onion without simultaneous ablution.

Paul Calf

Working yourself to death for an ever-diminishing income
Wondering whether your retirement consist entirely of the time between falling off your chair/forklift/scaffold and hitting the ground
Paying one-third to two-thirds of your income for a flat with firelighters for a wall and ceiling and being fucking grateful for it
Paying your taxes and NI every single day of your working life and ending it by paying £900 a week to rot away in a home staffed by sadistic minimum-wage grunts IF YOU'RE LUCKY
Doing whatever America does 20 years after it has any relevance or use.

idunnosomename

Celebrating a loud fart as a proud achievement.

jobotic

Quote from: Paul Calf on April 14, 2021, 01:59:37 PM
Working yourself to death for an ever-diminishing income
Wondering whether your retirement consist entirely of the time between falling off your chair/forklift/scaffold and hitting the ground
Paying one-third to two-thirds of your income for a flat with firelighters for a wall and ceiling and being fucking grateful for it
Paying your taxes and NI every single day of your working life and ending it by paying £900 a week to rot away in a home staffed by sadistic minimum-wage grunts IF YOU'RE LUCKY
Doing whatever America does 20 years after it has any relevance or use.

And hooden horses

Neville Chamberlain

Quote from: Paul Calf on April 14, 2021, 01:59:37 PM
Working yourself to death for an ever-diminishing income
Wondering whether your retirement consist entirely of the time between falling off your chair/forklift/scaffold and hitting the ground
Paying one-third to two-thirds of your income for a flat with firelighters for a wall and ceiling and being fucking grateful for it
Paying your taxes and NI every single day of your working life and ending it by paying £900 a week to rot away in a home staffed by sadistic minimum-wage grunts IF YOU'RE LUCKY
Doing whatever America does 20 years after it has any relevance or use.

Still, good news about the chocolate oranges.


Shoulders?-Stomach!

#27
The USA is an interesting case study about how to shore up your identity.

There are some basic abstract concepts and symbolism representing the US, and the basic shitty idea that 'Fuck you, we are USA, I haven't looked into it properly but this means we are the best and you suck'.

But if that was all that was needed, the US wouldn't be so  full of people trying to claim they were anything but American. They take their heritage, whether it is German, Polish, Chinese, Irish, Mexican, etc and cling to it like a little baby. There are people Live Action Role Playing being Irish or German, not actually being either. There are Czechs in Texas that think dressing up and eating the same food and having traditional dances means they are Czech. Fuck off. Having a heritage and enjoying that from time to time is fine, but trying to exist through it and defining yourself around it every single day of your life when you're American and your parents are American is exposing a hollow reality and that needs concealing.

Why do they do that? What is absent about America that they need to shore things up in this way?

Not that I wish to single the US out here. A lot of newly independent states were under imperial rule for so long that their own nationalism takes on some rather alarming and disingenuously phoney elements too. Yugoslavia 'a multi ethnic multi race multi faith brotherhood working for a common betterment', is far more desirable than Serbia's 'we define ourselves by our devotion to god and being on the historic front line against the Muslim hordes'.

I suppose whatever the fuck it is, it all comes back to a yearning for the roaring hearth, song, dance, stories, belonging, purpose, etc.

Quote from: Paul Calf on April 14, 2021, 01:59:37 PM
Working yourself to death for an ever-diminishing income
Wondering whether your retirement consist entirely of the time between falling off your chair/forklift/scaffold and hitting the ground
Paying one-third to two-thirds of your income for a flat with firelighters for a wall and ceiling and being fucking grateful for it
Paying your taxes and NI every single day of your working life and ending it by paying £900 a week to rot away in a home staffed by sadistic minimum-wage grunts IF YOU'RE LUCKY
Doing whatever America does 20 years after it has any relevance or use.

Irvine Welsh considers rewrite.

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on April 14, 2021, 01:14:19 PM
Morris Dancers, Beefeaters, Cup of tea and a slice of cake, Fish & chips.

Michael Stipe also considers rewrite.

Buelligan

Love the lingo.  Tiptop bit IMO.  Take or leave the rest.

Not really white though, is it?  On the white stuff, maybe white ware, though, I think the Chinese did it better and earlier.