I can't see that this innate tendency is anything to do with
Britishness. It is surely a zoological tendency, common mainly to
mammals but also many other species. Our cat will attack any other
cats it sees coming into our garden but not because it is a British
cat. A black blackbird attacks an albino blackbird, whether British or
not. Bees attack any intruder coming into the hive, even bees from
another hive.
Brian Read
On 2 Feb 2007, at 18:25, ernie pollard wrote:
> As a biologist with a (relatively) late in life interest in history,
> it is interesting to me that, as Nick Hudd has said, this topic links
> the two subjects. We are innately co-operative (even apparently
> altruistic) with people we identify as of our own community, but
> hostile to those who look or sound different and who may be dangerous.
> Strong feelings of these sorts aided survival. At first they were no
> doubt at the tribal level, but came to involve class, nationality,
> race and religion and to do great damage, especially as we became more
> efficient at killing.
>
> Now we understand something of the genetic basis, perhaps eventually
> we will be able to keep the good things and discard the bad; progress
> seems slow, but I hope we are slowly shedding class, racial and
> religious prejudices and that this is a welcome change in Britishness
>
> Ernie Pollard
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