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England Has a Soul, If She Can Keep It
First Things ^ | 22 June 2016 | Francesca Aran Murphy

Posted on 06/23/2016 3:30:08 PM PDT by Lorianne

“England,” our Fairest Isle, including Scotland and Wales, looks like one single place because it is one single place. It is surrounded on all sides by water, which marks its boundaries and colours the British soul. You may say that there is no such thing as the “soul” of England: We may imagine her as Britannia, but a country is not a person. The only corporate personality, I am reliably told by R. R. Reno, is the Church. Countries are not persons, said the Oracle. No, maybe not—but they are analogous to persons, and they have some analog of a soul. And today we may say, as was said to France in 1941: “England, take care not to lose your soul.”

What does it mean for a country to have a soul? What would it mean for a country to lose its soul?

For a place to be a country at all, it must be a whole. It must look like, and also be, a single, self-standing whole. For a place to be a country, it must be given the look of an individual entity, by surrounding seas or rivers, or by mountain ranges. These geographical features defend the country against absorption into surrounding areas. Like life in the “Darwinian jungle,” so human life in the fallen history of mankind is a ceaseless struggle to survive against the other countries' will to dominion. A country's geographical boundaries not only make its wholeness visible but also shield it, enabling it to survive as a single, substantial entity. Thus, neither Norfolk nor, I'm sorry to say, Wales could operate for long as a country.

I name those two, by the way, because I'm confidently told that “one might as well say that Wales or Norfolk should seek independence from Great Britain and become self-governing states, as say that Great Britain should retrieve its independence from the maw of the European Union.” But Norfolk has not been a single, independent country for a thousand years, for the very good reason that it has no discernible borders to keep out intruders and mark its identity. What makes a place a country is a matter of geography and history. Spain is surrounded by mountains to the north and sea to the south. Poor Wales is not sufficiently so defended.

England is a country, as a matter of geography and history. But while a country's borders defend it from death by absorption into a wider empire, they cannot give it a soul. We know whether a place has a soul by whether it has a voice. A soul without a voice is unimaginable. A person's voice expresses his or her singular personality. The first thing we know about God in Genesis is that he speaks. A mute deity would be absolutely impersonal. To have anything analogous to a soul, a country needs not only borders but something like a voice. Not just the English accent, or a Welsh lilt or the Scottish brogue that so mystifies the Americans that they need subtitles for Scottish movies—but a single voice, appearing as the expression of a single mind. Without a single mind, a country has nothing analogous to a substantive personality, of which its voice is the outward indication. A multilingual territory can be an empire, in which one of its many languages is the dominant strain. But seldom can it be a single country with a soul of its own. That is why national independence movements desperately attempt to resurrect dying or dead local dialects.

That is why “Europe” will never be a “country,” and its M.O. will always be, not contingently but fundamentally, anti-democratic. With its twenty-four bureaucratically stipulated languages, the E.U. is a soul-less empire, not a country like England, Spain, and Hungary, with its own voice, its own mouth-piece, and thus something like a soul to call its own.

Every one of those “official languages” of the E.U., from Bulgarian to Swedish, has seen the sea-changes over the centuries. Languages live, they shrivel into local dialects, and thereby, languages die. If a country has some analog of a soul, that soul lives only in time, and therefore lives, and will eventually die, at some juncture in history. For the soul of England, that juncture may be imminent.

Tomorrow, the Fairest Isle has to choose between forfeiting her soul to the European Empire and retaining the sovereign freedom of her Parliamentary democracy. I do not hold out much hope for a vote to “Leave” the European Empire. The big banks, the money-guys, the Goldman-Sachses, and the Soroses are all for “Remaining.” So are those who want E.U. cash for their University jobs. So is everyone for whom money is their driving motivation. They want to exchange England's freedom for the mirage of prosperity. Very few people today believe there is such thing as a soul, exhibited in freedom from material constraint, and thus rising above money interests.

(excerpted)


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: brexit; britain; brixit; england; europeanunion; nato; uk; unitedkingdom
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1 posted on 06/23/2016 3:30:08 PM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

52/48 stay. The system is rigged. Game over.


2 posted on 06/23/2016 3:32:45 PM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature (HTTP 500 - Internal Server Error)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature
Game over.

That is... unfortunate.

3 posted on 06/23/2016 3:37:05 PM PDT by grobdriver (Where is Wilson Blair when you need him?)
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To: Lorianne

They just threw their sovereignty away


4 posted on 06/23/2016 3:37:33 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature

Raise your hand if you thought for even one minute they would vote to leave.


5 posted on 06/23/2016 3:37:34 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Lorianne; fieldmarshaldj; Impy; GOPsterinMA; randita; Sun; NFHale; ExTexasRedhead; GeronL; ...

We’ll know tonight. But it’s clear that the Establishment has been caught off guard by the surge of support. Surprisingly, about 25% of Labor Party members plan to support leaving the EU.

The vote is falling less on traditional party/socioeconomic lines and more on Establishment vs. Grass Roots lines.


6 posted on 06/23/2016 3:38:08 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (The barbarians are inside because there are no gates)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Quote:

“Raise your hand if you thought for even one minute they would vote to leave.”

Never thought for a minute it would happen. Globalist totalitarianism is the future. Enjoy.....


7 posted on 06/23/2016 3:39:37 PM PDT by TTFlyer
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To: Lorianne

The Kinks - Living on a Thin Line

All the stories have been told
Of kings and days of old,
But there’s no England now.
All the wars that were won and lost
Somehow don’t seem to matter very much anymore.
All the lies we were told,
All the lies of the people running round,
They’re castles have burned.
Now I see change,
But inside we’re the same as we ever were.

Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Living this way, each day is a dream.
What am I, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?

Now another century nearly gone,
What are we gonna leave for the young?
What we couldn’t do, what we wouldn’t do,
It’s a crime, but does it matter?
Does it matter much, does it matter much to you?
Does it ever really matter?
Yes, it really, really matters.

Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?

Now another leader says
Break their hearts and break some heads.
Is there nothing we can say or do?
Blame the future on the past,
Always lost in blood and guts.
And when they’re gone, it’s me and you.

Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line,
Tell me now, what are we supposed to do?
Living on a thin line.


8 posted on 06/23/2016 3:40:04 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Lorianne

IT IS discouraging , to say the least, that the vote is even close at all

British people should be free, not slaves to the Euro/Islamic Empire dictators in Brussels (and Berlin)

Brits have a heritage (and a future, if they wish to reclaim it)

Hoping that UK votes for independence


9 posted on 06/23/2016 3:42:28 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: faithhopecharity

But you have a large population that sees Britain as an oppressor nation, because they came from the former colonies.


10 posted on 06/23/2016 3:43:34 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Georgia Girl 2

“Raise your hand if you thought for even one minute they would vote to leave.”

I did.

I really thought the leave side would win.


11 posted on 06/23/2016 3:44:14 PM PDT by Fai Mao (I'm not a crank! I just act like one.)
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To: Lorianne

My father always referred to them as “the godless English.” I don’t know where he stood on the country having a soul.


12 posted on 06/23/2016 3:44:45 PM PDT by Oratam
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To: dfwgator

their presence in UK instead of their own countries... is a big part of Britain’s problem


13 posted on 06/23/2016 3:46:25 PM PDT by faithhopecharity ("Politicians are not born. They're excreted." Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: Lorianne

I thought the leave side would be motivated and go out to vote while the remain would be meh for the cause.

What is going on?


14 posted on 06/23/2016 3:47:02 PM PDT by lavaroise (s)
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To: Fai Mao

Over there and I’m talking England, Ireland and Scotland they are all Socialists for generations. There is no way the population of the UK will ever vote to leave the collective. They are just going along with suicide by Muslim and they will not lift a finger to stop it.

All we can do is look to them as a warning and stop it here in the US. TPP if passed with be another form of the EU.


15 posted on 06/23/2016 3:47:26 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

I did, but the murder of the MP changed the momentum.


16 posted on 06/23/2016 3:48:33 PM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: dfwgator

You beat me to it!


17 posted on 06/23/2016 3:48:57 PM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Fai Mao
The Soviet dictator Stalin is reputed to have said that he who votes decides nothing, but he who counts the votes decides everything. Stalin and for that matter old time city bosses like Pendergast, Tweed, and Daley did their vote fraud with paper ballots. Modern voting technology makes the potential for fraud so much greater.
18 posted on 06/23/2016 3:49:47 PM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: Nifster

They like the nanny state too much.


19 posted on 06/23/2016 3:50:49 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: Georgia Girl 2

“Raise your hand if you thought for even one minute they would vote to leave.”

Nope. Not me. London fell to the muzzies. England is already doomed.


20 posted on 06/23/2016 3:51:02 PM PDT by CodeToad (Islam should be banned and treated as a criminal enterprise!)
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