Anglo-Saxon Nuclear Family Power
A conservative blog for peace "get[s] the feeling Steve Sailer really doesn’t like Catholic culture (which fuels his animosity to Mexicans) but [acknowledges that] he makes you think" in linking to this article of the latter's suggesting that "the key to Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism is the nuclear family structure" — David Willetts’ The Pinch: U.K. Cabinet Minister’s Discreet But Devastating Dissent On Immigration.
"When it comes to families, England was the first nuclear power," quips the subject of Mr. Sailer's article. Mr. Willetts notes that Mother England was "not just different from Papua New Guinea or Pakistan; it is also quite different from France and Italy and most of Continental Europe." [Mr. Sailer adds, "... except for Holland and Denmark."] And this is nothing new: "this difference dates to at least 1250—and perhaps back to (or beyond) the Dark Age days of King Canute."
"The Anglo-Saxons managed to hit the sweet spot between the kind of cut-throat individualism seen in a handful of cultures... and the more workable extended family cultures seen in, say, Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet," says Mr. Sailer, adding later, "It’s noteworthy that Shakespeare and his English audience sided with Romeo and Juliet against their kinfolk."
Click on the link to read the fascinating and surely controversial rest to read how a "distinction between extended and nuclear family structures has profound political implications," resulting in both "the Anglo-American heritage of self-governing liberty under law" and the "advantages to extended families," which "serve as miniature welfare states."
I suspect many readers of this 'blog might lament the "loss" of the extended family, as characterized by the lack of "specific words for particular types of uncles, grandparents, and cousins;" however, as Mr. Sailer notes that "the English apparently never needed to develop these terms," it's futile to weep over something we never had. Particularism calls us to admire what extended families give to other cultures but also to appreciate what smaller families have given to us.
"When it comes to families, England was the first nuclear power," quips the subject of Mr. Sailer's article. Mr. Willetts notes that Mother England was "not just different from Papua New Guinea or Pakistan; it is also quite different from France and Italy and most of Continental Europe." [Mr. Sailer adds, "... except for Holland and Denmark."] And this is nothing new: "this difference dates to at least 1250—and perhaps back to (or beyond) the Dark Age days of King Canute."
"The Anglo-Saxons managed to hit the sweet spot between the kind of cut-throat individualism seen in a handful of cultures... and the more workable extended family cultures seen in, say, Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet," says Mr. Sailer, adding later, "It’s noteworthy that Shakespeare and his English audience sided with Romeo and Juliet against their kinfolk."
Click on the link to read the fascinating and surely controversial rest to read how a "distinction between extended and nuclear family structures has profound political implications," resulting in both "the Anglo-American heritage of self-governing liberty under law" and the "advantages to extended families," which "serve as miniature welfare states."
I suspect many readers of this 'blog might lament the "loss" of the extended family, as characterized by the lack of "specific words for particular types of uncles, grandparents, and cousins;" however, as Mr. Sailer notes that "the English apparently never needed to develop these terms," it's futile to weep over something we never had. Particularism calls us to admire what extended families give to other cultures but also to appreciate what smaller families have given to us.
Labels: Albion, Family, The Catholic Faith
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