I can happily think of myself as English, British and European simultaneously. I am happy to be in EU, have lived in France and Spain.
. But I think to say there is a European culture we all share is no more, and in some ways less true that saying we share culture with Canada, Australia or even USA which is more that just language, to do with legal and political systems and history.

sorry, link to the fairy tale paper that Ive posted before, but is ace

http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/1/150645

o’kontrea… why do you think that? surprised you would say that given the accolades he recieved for the book.

because essentially it’s a gross distortion of historical facts?

His central claim that societies fail or succeed because of their agricultural production fails to bear up under even the teeniest scrutiny, and what Diamond glosses over (time and time and time again) is that just because you have guns and steel does not mean you should use them for colonial and imperial purposes….

It’s Western Imperialist apologist porn.

in some ways less true that saying we share culture with Canada, Australia or even USA which is more that just language, to do with legal and political systems and history.

Having spent time in the USA, I don’t think we share much with them beyond popular culture. And if you look closely even that reveals the huge cultural gulf between us.

I feel we share far more with our immediate European neighbours than with Americans.

Re that book, I have not read Guns Germs and Steel but I have read about 2/3 of Collapse by the same author. Turns out that being told something quite obvious over and over again extremely slowly isn’t my cup of tea 🙂

Western Imperialist apologist porn

The very BEST kind of porn, kemo sabe.

I feel we share far more with our immediate European neighbours than with Americans.

Indeed and I’ve always felt we should maintain a far stronger relationship with Europe that America.