This is such an important thing to talk about. I'm British, but because of my obsession with history, I've never liked England, even hated it at points in my life.
I will say that that's an important distinction to make. The British Empire was mostly because of England. Wales was taken over by England for so long, and Scotland never got along with England.
The British Empire is not something to glorify at all.
I think a LOT of the political issues faced by the UK today come from a sense of wanting to get back to “the glory days”. We’ve kind of mythologised the time when Britain “ruled the world”, to the point that it’s a part of our very culture, to the point where it’s kind of treated on culture as our divine right.
I’m British Bengali, and I know the history of Bangladesh. I know how my people suffered under British rule. There wasn’t enough physical a price to pay, back then. Britain ruled a quarter of the world at the cost of very real human lives. They justified it by dehumanising the people they were oppressing.
yeah, the British Empire was cool, like as a concept. But the kind of hunger for international power is a rot at the core of our culture. We never should have ruled over so many, we shouldn’t have imposed ourselves and our values on other cultures. The idea that ANYONE has that right is a problem for any just society.
Most powerful politicians, at least subconsciously, believe that. I actually think most brits believe it, though by no fault of their own. But that belief is leading to more suffering for the people in the country. We have all these politicians more focused on sucking up to America than making any meaningful change.
it’s all a pathetic play for power. If the government were more focused on making lives better for brits than trying to be seen as the empire it once was, we would be in a MUCH Better position. The right are so obsessed with “British culture”, when they’re the ones KILLING the culture in the name of GDP.
:/