Are you proud to be English/British?

At the turn of the last century we ruled the waves one quarter of the world. Now we are ruled by Brussels and can't even fit an aircraft carrier with an aircraft, we have to share with the French.

I know you shouldn't be proud of where you happened to be born, but since there's no changing it you may as well embrace the fact and show some national pride. I don't particularly like the Royals but it's nice to see the show of national pride for royal birthdays, weddings and the likes.

So are you proud to be British?

Would you rather Britain forced control over loads of different territories and not allow them freedom to govern and rule then?

Hello old friend.

What about if I say that I'm proud to be a member of my family and I'm proud of their (and my) roots? I'm proud to belong somewhere and to something that's bigger than I am. That seems a fairly natural feeling. And to say that I'm stupid for feeling that way just seems simply not to have understood what it is to belong somewhere.

I suppose I'm proud to be British I have a lot of foreign friends from all over the world and they seem pretty interested in British life, and they're all proud in themselves to know a Brit

Hey, how are you?

The rather childish insults were aimed at the OP who is a well known buffoon. But take tham away and the base of my point still stands. That pride is essentially an assertion of superiority over something else. I take it you are proud of your family because you feel they have perhaps achieved more than many others etc..etc..

If pride is a virtue. Then surely a superior pride is that of individual achievments rather than the achievments of others? By all means be proud of others but like I say in my post, to point at them like the OP and scream superiority is quite contemptible. Given his character he appears more of a leech than a noble patriot.

Nothing buffoonish about my post pal (but then there never is and it's just hyperbolic bull**** spouted by people that hate on me because our personalities clash.

As far as people are saying.

Yes we should remember when Britain had a vast empire. Not for any racist connotations, god no, but we should celebrate that we're from here. Seeing as though as I say we can't change it and may as well embrace it. Is it worth embracing? Not recently. To notion of being "British" has negative associations these days. I know the rest of the world hates us. But so what?

And if we shouldn't rejoice in the fact that we're British we should quite frankly count ourselves lucky that we're not from a Third World country.

I'm very dissapointed and ashamed at the pathetic way our Empire was thrown away.

What are you talking about? My point was that pride inherently asserts superiority over something else. Employing some Pascalian gambit doesn't negate that, nor does it address my argument.

Hey, how are you?

The rather childish insults were aimed at the OP who is a well known buffoon. But take tham away and the base of my point still stands. That pride is essentially an assertion of superiority over something else. I take it you are proud of your family because you feel they have perhaps achieved more than many others etc..etc..

If pride is a virtue. Then surely a superior pride is that of individual achievments rather than the achievments of others? By all means be proud of others but like I say in my post, to point at them like the OP and scream superiority is quite contemptible. Given his character he appears more of a leech than a noble patriot.

They could have been governed fine...by their own people even; all i ask is that they remain in the empire...why do they need independence?

Well for me 'British' conjuors up ideas of the British empire whereas 'English' feels more personal to me and things like white cliffs of Dover and cornwall etc. As well as tea.

Anglophilia .. I'm happy that I live so close to Britain, lol.

Not proud. Why would I be proud? But I'm happy to be here and I'd rather live in Britain than in any other country in the world.

Ooh, you're right. I do love Anglophilia in foreign people, but at the same time, I prefer Britophilia? =] and Anglophilia is often used to mean that anyways. E.g. you being happy you live near Britain or an american loving BBC's Torchwood and saying they're an anglophile. It basically means Britophile really?

Well, for example, I know several eastern European who are very proud of their country and their heritage, and why shouldn't they be? It doesn't make them fascists, it's not 'irrational' as some people never tire of telling us, it seems a perfectly natural and healthy pride in who they are and the most rational thing in the world, for a people who had been oppressed and denied their national heritage for so long, and who had to fight to regain it.


Their pride has nothing to do with them thinking they are better than anyone else, it's simply them being proud of who the are as a people, and being willing to defend who and what they are. Total indifference to who you are (or shame for many of our left-liberal friends) doesn't really sound like a recipe for success, or survival.