Culture

The discussion of birthright citizenship has led me over to a consideration of culture. Americans are a people who have shed much of their earlier culture and embraced a new one here.  That is not either-or, neither in America nor elsewhere, as every generation - every nuclear family, every person, even - keeps some things and discards others. But America is made up of people who came from elsewhere, save the Native populations (and even those...), and once here, often moved on to second third, and twentieth places over time. We have chosen to have our culture  revolve around a set of ideas.

That's the theory, anyway. In practice some of us hold to cultural practices of previous generations, or even continued those of the old country. Plus, the definition of what those American ideas even are changes over time. Others have quite intentionally cut themselves off from most of what their parents and grandparents did.  They have moved elsewhere, adopted different practices, and seldom or never check back with the old folks at home.

This is quite different in Europe, though there is always some of the change of young people moving to the city for jobs and education, or the changes of migration and invasion. I have always seen Great Britain as existing between continental Europe and America in terms of those attitudes.  More like the Continent, but with a considerable helping of idea-culture as much as blood-and-soil.  I suspect it comes from Empire, and having constant contact with Canadians, Australians, and others who settled elsewhere in the name of England. Those places that already had many people but were administered by Great Britain created another class of culture-nostalgics.

The following clip is from a BBC detective series in the early 2000's. Remember first that it is a work of fiction, and the writers can make people say what they want, as well as control your impression about them. The actor does an excellent job of conveying an earnest, even inspiring plain man, yet with an undercurrent of threat. You are about to see it out of context, which I am doing intentionally.  I can't sit up much longer and will have to pick this up again later, but where I am going is a discussion of what constitutes a culture, and how is it passed along.

Update:  Forgot to mention.  When he says the line "I'm not a racist," I recall thinking Hmm, maybe you are, but reminded myself that he means something real when he says it.  He's not the sort of person who would say that just to be polite and please others.  More likely, he means that he has friends who are different, and doesn't begrudge them their difference.  He just wants to preserve what is his. His description of what his gripe is is the killer.  I heard his gripe and immediately knew. He's right.