The English Dilemma
Jun. 7th, 2009 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fadagaskiI just watched The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a harrowing and brutal account of the English occupation of Ireland and the foment of protest in the 1920s/1930s. It's an amazing movie, tense and heartbreaking, that everyone should watch if possible. It does an amazing job of opening the door a crack into the Irish 'problem', examining the origins of the two strands of Irish rebellion - compromise and war.
It's troubling to me as someone who defines herself as English. I'm technically more Celtic than Anglo-Saxon, if you follow the bloodlines, but I self-identify as English. I have been known to rant that my country isn't given the same space to be a country in its own right as Wales or Scotland. The English flag is St George's Cross, not the Union Jack; we have a patron saint day too, though you'd be forgiven for forgetting it.
Every now and then, something like this movie comes to slap you in the face. England had its space in which to define itself. It defined itself across the face of the world; at one point, more than 25% of the global population was under English dominion. England defined itself with slavery and rape and murder. When that space collapsed, buckling beneath the weight of England's greed, our legacy was written in blood and chaos. This is our history.
The question then becomes one of separation. To what degree can I separate myself from the sins of my forebears? I can never be sorry enough for the pain inflicted on other nations, but to what extent must I hang my head in shame? Will there ever be a time when the modern country of England can stand tall and say, "I've paid my dues"? At what point is the slate washed clean? I don't think it ever can be.
And it appears we have learned nothing as a country if we've voted in the BNP. Jesus fucking Christ.
It's troubling to me as someone who defines herself as English. I'm technically more Celtic than Anglo-Saxon, if you follow the bloodlines, but I self-identify as English. I have been known to rant that my country isn't given the same space to be a country in its own right as Wales or Scotland. The English flag is St George's Cross, not the Union Jack; we have a patron saint day too, though you'd be forgiven for forgetting it.
Every now and then, something like this movie comes to slap you in the face. England had its space in which to define itself. It defined itself across the face of the world; at one point, more than 25% of the global population was under English dominion. England defined itself with slavery and rape and murder. When that space collapsed, buckling beneath the weight of England's greed, our legacy was written in blood and chaos. This is our history.
The question then becomes one of separation. To what degree can I separate myself from the sins of my forebears? I can never be sorry enough for the pain inflicted on other nations, but to what extent must I hang my head in shame? Will there ever be a time when the modern country of England can stand tall and say, "I've paid my dues"? At what point is the slate washed clean? I don't think it ever can be.
And it appears we have learned nothing as a country if we've voted in the BNP. Jesus fucking Christ.
