This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Not buying this at all.
I think your theory would need to be substantiated with genetic analysis. My understanding is basically the complete opposite of your theory: due to the higher fertility and lower infant mortality of the upper classes, the continent experienced persistent downward social mobility through generations and significant evolutionary pressures like the black death. This resulted in essentially the genetic replacement by the upper classes of the lower classes some times over.
The effect was the emergence of a middle class and giving even the lower classes a higher quality, such that a few of them could go to a new world on a new continent and build a civilization in the blink of an eye.
It's been awhile since I read Gregory Clark's work, but that was the impression I came away with, and I'm not buying that there's a significant genetic differentiation between the classes that at all resembles, say, the Indian caste system.
I'm also not buying that you are trying to relegate English identity to only 5% of the population. Let me guess- you are not English. I imagine you have some pretty latent hostility towards the English to come up with a cockamamie theory to remove them from their own ethnic heritage. In your view, the half-Jew half-Brahmin elite will have a better claim to English identity than the English. I wonder why you believe that...
And thus middle-class. Schoolteaching is the quintessential middle-middle career. Enoch Powell's education was typical of the near-elites of his day (he went to a grammar school, then to a public school on a scholarship). Enoch's Tory colleagues wouldn't (and didn't, until he went off on one) treat him as an uncultured interloper like Ramsay MacDonald.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link