Apologies for misconstruing your post (my bad), but the fact remains that comparing the two nations is madness. I shan’t read the book, simply because I’ve read it all before, only it’s generally British liberals who are busy denigrating British society and its values, and hailing those of nations whose people genuinely understand what it’s like to have their spirits crushed.
I find it particularly bizarre and ironic coming from a US Republican, but there we go.
The truth is, all western nations have problems and need to find a balance - I just don’t understand why so many on this site focus so intently on Britain’s faults, when America’s are so clear for all to see.
I find it particularly bizarre and ironic coming from a US Republican, but there we go.I may be going out on a limb here, but it seems like you are British and I would further guess, secular. Unlike British conservatives, American conservatives are mostly Christian. From my perspective, just about all of Western Europe is a perfect object lesson for the dangers of secularization, and England is no exception. England is spiraling into destruction and there is nothing that the party elites - liberal or conservatives - can do to stop it until people at the grass roots get down on their knees and turn to God.
I just don’t understand why so many on this site focus so intently on Britain’s faults, when America’s are so clear for all to see.
I think you need to reread my original post again. Here is a relevant excerpt: "He chronicals the predominately white underclass in England and shows that they suffer from the same pathologies as the black underclass in the United States."
Although I did not dwell on the point, many in America point out that the cause of poverty is the breakdown of marriage. But in America that gets caught up in black/white racial issues. The nice thing about England, and Dalyrmple's book, is that you can take race out of the equation and just focus on the self-destructive nature of poverty.