just how important is the Royal Family?

[MDV]

Yeah your right, your reasoning is so clear, stripping away all the rubbish detritus of history - lets have one world government - now that would stop all conflict, or at least we could then have one world police to stop the ethnic tensions that might emerge from those not clever enough to see that their feeling of community and identity  was in fact wrong headed poxy artificial reasoning  :lol:

Precisely the sort of engrained glorified tribalism I expected.

Your nationality is Human. All else is secondary or artificial. Deal with it.

P.S. Reductio ad absurdum. Look it up :)

[Twinfan]

...or at least we could then have one world police...

F**k Yeah!  :lol:

[MDV]

:lol:

[Afghan Dave]

Yeah your right, your reasoning is so clear, stripping away all the rubbish detritus of history - lets have one world government - now that would stop all conflict, or at least we could then have one world police to stop the ethnic tensions that might emerge from those not clever enough to see that their feeling of community and identity  was in fact wrong headed poxy artificial reasoning  :lol:

Precisely the sort of engrained glorified tribalism I expected.

Your nationality is Human. All else is secondary or artificial. Deal with it.

P.S. Reductio ad absurdum. Look it up :)

(cough)Bullsh!t(cough)

And your aunt would be your uncle if she had balls... Look it up!  :P

[Elliot]

That's the sort of organisation I had in mind.  Remember, there is no "I" in "Team America"

BTW 'nationality is human' = category mistake  :D

[MDV]

I know you could call it a category error, but that would be completely missing the point, which you have both done very aptly.

[Philly Q]

plus i'm not certain you've thought through the ireland thing... making it one country so we liked each other more might just degenerate into a gigantic royal rumble... :lol:

I said I was avoiding the political complexities....

Yeah your right, your reasoning is so clear, stripping away all the rubbish detritus of history - lets have one world government - now that would stop all conflict, or at least we could then have one world police to stop the ethnic tensions that might emerge from those not clever enough to see that their feeling of community and identity  was in fact wrong headed poxy artificial reasoning  :lol:

You live in London and you have a "feeling of community and identity"?  Come on, pull the other one.  :P

[MDV]

You live in London and you have a "feeling of community and identity"?  Come on, pull the other one.  :P

:lol:

Good shout!

[Elliot]

I live in South East London where we are all nice to each other - at least we say please and thank you before giving each other a black eye 8)

[shobet]

You two use your tongues prettier than $10 whores...

[dave_mc]

(a) Presently the Scottish MPs in parliament continue to vote on English matters that no longer concern them... That is NOT devolution.

(b) If we English don't start to be a bit more forthright and become educated and proud about our intellectual contribution to the world we will all be poorer for it.

(a) you could just have your own assembly along the lines of the scottish/NI/welsh one. problem solved.

(b) are you kidding? you've felt a little bit guilty for about the past 50 years about imperialism. I'd hardly say you're shrinking violets, even yet.

Its one poxy little planet, why divide it up into a couple of hundred tiny countries so we can have silly little disputes with each other?

Daves right; all countries are artificial constructs.

:drink:

don't get me wrong, forcing everyone into the one country now that we're used to being in separate ones would likely do more harm than good, as elliot said. But yeah, all countries are artificial constructs.

I said I was avoiding the political complexities....

i wouldn't say it's a complexity at all, it's just common sense (if you live here, anyway). Plus your argument about splitting into different countries helping us to get along better is a fallacy too- have you ever been to ireland (i.e. eire- not northern ireland because the area you're in would skew the results ;)) and asked the average punter on the street what he/she thinks of the english? To get the correct (i.e. not the tourist-friendly) answer, you'd have to affect an irish accent, of course. :lol:

:)

[Philly Q]

Plus your argument about splitting into different countries helping us to get along better is a fallacy too- have you ever been to ireland (i.e. eire- not northern ireland because the area you're in would skew the results ;)) and asked the average punter on the street what he/she thinks of the english? To get the correct (i.e. not the tourist-friendly) answer, you'd have to affect an irish accent, of course. :lol:

Yeah, but why do the Irish, Scots and Welsh hate the English and vice versa?  Do all English people have some innate characteristic that all Irish people instinctively react against, like magnets repelling each other?  

No, they're just brought up that way, due to generations of passed-down prejudice based on events that happened hundreds of years before anyone alive today was born.  It's childish, and it's bullsh!t.

[dave_mc]

i agree wholeheartedly, but it's naive if you don't realise that that's the way it works.

i'm also not sure if it's "hundreds of years", either. Certainly in ireland (and definitely in northern ireland), it's pretty recent.

regarding the "innate characteristic", you don't all have it, but some of you do. the couple of times I've been in London, certainly some people acted like I must be an idiot because I didn't have an English accent, or because I didn't understand the exact system the tube was running on (wow, it took me like 15 minutes to figure it out). It's also pretty funny when a few others get really scared when they realise where I'm from... :lol: not to mention extremely ironic.

[Philly Q]

regarding the "innate characteristic", you don't all have it, but some of you do.

I'm not English, I'm Welsh.  I only live here. 


Anyway, I think this is one of those topics it's very difficult to discuss on a forum without sounding all pompous and misunderstanding each other.  We'd be much better off getting rat-arsed and shouting at each other in a pub.  :P

[Dmoney]

London is rubbish.
im from the north west and people dont understand me. they think im a cave dwelling heathen.

some irish, scots, and welsh dislike the english, and the northern english hate the southern english, and the southerners don't care or go out of their way to hate anyone. they wouldnt even describe themselves as southern... BUT THEY ARE!
my accent is a mix of lancashire and scouse. not the best for chatting to folk in london.

Imperialism didnt hit home to me till i went to work in New Delhi for two months. wowser.