The last night of the proms is a celebration of Britishness – an unbridled display of nostalgia for the Empire on which the sun was never supposed to set.
It is of course shameless and shameful. For the British colonial enterprise is something which still leaves a profound legacy of inequity and injustice across the globe.
That legacy, that Empire of old, is full of incredible contradictions.
On the Last Night of the Proms, such contradictions are shoved aside. Rose coloured glasses are compulsory attire. The grand old songs are trotted out.
Britannia still rules the waves.
The feet still in ancient times walk upon England’s mountains green.
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set.
The Union Jack is unfurled and waved and we are all transported to the glory days.
The proverbial lump rises in the proverbial throat.
Some of us celebrate our own version of Britishness.
In the end, what legacy is really left? Well my friends, what really is left is the language you are, at this moment, reading. The Empire is long gone, but English is the most important language on this globe and that fact simply cannot be denied. With incredible mongrel-like qualities (like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up all it its way), it has won the linguistic day.
By the way, it is probably the only language in the world that has or needs a thesaurus and I invite you, ask you, beg you, petition you, beseech you, implore you, and entreat you to consider this fact.
Mind you folks, all this seemed lost on the old gentleman who sat in front of me on Saturday night (at the proms) and rustled a plastic bag throughout a soft romantic piece.
2 comments:
I believe that the places that were colonized by the British were going to be colonized by one or the other of the maritime powers of those colonial days. Britain brought more than its language to it's colonies. It brought the seeds of parliamentary government and eventually religious freedom. I live in the US and am thankful that we and Canada evolved from former British colonies rather than from Spain and Portugal which are to this day politically backward as are their former colonies. The former British islands in the Caribbean are better off than most of the others. Australia and South Africa are also former British colonies that have done well
I do agree that it was arrogant of Britain and others to try to rule peoples who had their own culture and religion.
I agree with your comments about Spain and Portugal. Many of the difficulties in the Philippines are traceable back to the 300 Spanish occupation rather than the Commonwealth phase under the US administration.
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