Individual Cultures Matter

It’s nice, and useful, when readers write back with their comments about the content of my blogs. Mike quite likes Finland. And I can see the attraction.

It’s not for me because I like warmth and longer days in the winter, so more southern climes are for me, but there are attractions in Finland, but with (for me) serious caveats.

I will pretend not to have noticed the statue of someone having a piss in the street as you walk into town from the ferry.

I like the wildness of the country, but I have written about my problems with Scandinavia, namely the long winters. I dont appreciate getting lost driving north, only to find we have all ended up going round in a circle on a frozen lake.

But I do like wandering around Helsinki, and walking about in Central Park picking the blue-berries and looking around the animals’ burial ground. I did a short video of this when I was last there. Here’s the link:

I think Finland’s recent love affair with NATO was a big mistake, and the build-up of weapons aimed at Russia is a serious and unnecessary provocation, but I do believe that the USA is these days a paper tiger, and Russia probably regards the country as all noise and no bite. But what a waste of funds. All so childish, but that’s politicians for you.

Finland will have to make friends with Russia again in the not too distant future.

It’s only a simple voyage to the wonderful city of St Petersburg in northern Russia, and if you are in Finland I do suggest you take the voyage. St Petersburg is one of the beautiful cities on this planet, and the Hermitage museum is a must. I must did out my photos and do an online spin round the city so you can see the place.

I also recommend a trip south to Estonia, and in particular the city of Tallin. The centre of the city is architecturally rather quaint and interesting, and the restaurants are also somewhat quaint. You can eat bear if that turns you on, and the local experience can be quite medieval if that turns you on, but be careful what unusual animals you do eat, some, like beavers, aren’t very nice.

Where else is a fascinating alternative country to call home?

I have to admit I enjoyed my time in Scandinavia, but I dont like the cold. I also enjoyed my time in the Baltic states, but I think I would very soon get tired of that part of the world. Estonia is certainly a modern country, but it is also very rural, which some people, myself included, like. It is also very quiet, if that turns you on.

It really is so difficult talking about foreign countries. The attractions are always so very personal.

The trouble is, the policy mandates from Brussels are that the uniqueness of Finland, and the Baltic states is a bad thing and we should all strive to be the same undifferenciated bland anonymous cultures.

Let me expand upon this idea for a moment.

I noticed a discussion on the web the other day. It was supposed to be about what is wrong with the EU, and why it is failing.

There were all sorts of arguments, but one very simple argument was missing.

The EU is all about an idea in Brussels that is disseminated across the union. It says quite brazenly that the Brussels elite have this vision, and they are insisting the rest of the EU embrace it or it will be forced on everyone.

When I was at school that was called fascism. And it has no thought or feeling for the common folk. They are just so much rabble to be controlled, and the EU has turned into a freak control centre.

A long time ago I read books voraciously. I remember one day at university counting the books on my shelf. There were twenty-seven which I had on loan from the university library, and which I was currently studying. One of the subjects that interested me was the vast expanse of life on Earth. A couple of points resonated with me.

If I remember correctly we share 97% of our genes with chimpanzees. Basically we are animals. And what is the most fundamental instinct in animals? Territory. We are all territorial in our approach to life. Deprive us of our territory and you leave us disoriented and almost purposeless.

What we are seeing across the EU is the deliberate destruction of our basic roots. Black Africans make a lot of fuss about their roots. I’m not black, and not African, but I used to teach in the Africa Centre in Southalll in London, and there was much talk about roots. In contrast there was much talk about how the Somalians who were coming into the country at the time as refugees needed to adjust to the British way of life. The interesting subtext to this was that not a single of the original group of supposed Africans in the centre had ever been to Africa, and seemed to know nothing about it. Indeed, I was very popular because I had travelled over rather a large part of the continent.

I have no doubt that many black folks in Europe have a rather confused sense of belonging. Their natural territorial imperative has been messed up. I happen to think that is serious, and it is what is beginning to happen to those of us who henceforth called Europe our home, but are in the process of being dispossessed. That is no basis for civilisation. Europe is being turned into some kind of transit station. That way lies disaster. Ultimately it is either going to turn the EU into a no-go zone, or the whole structure is going to fall apart.

We need territorial security. Without it any kind of social cohesion falls apart. At the moment rather a lot of us are searching around for that security to underpin our relationship with the world, and a great many of us aren’t finding it, or we are finding it being stripped away.

This loss is important. It is fundamental, and without it Europe is being destroyed. What use is a continent filled with displaced persons? This is not going to end well.

I used to think the clarion call “Black Lives Matter” was going to take us right back to problems with colour just when I thought those prejudices were all in the past. Now I am beginning to wonder. Here I am, and a whole generation of Europeans on the verge of screaming that French lives matter; Spanish Lives Matter; Hungarian lives matter. EU lives?? What the hell does that mean? Maybe we Europeans have a kind of shared history, but that’s not really the same as a territorial imperative. That imperative is stronger and more basic than a pan-European idea. The EU ideology compliments that imperative, but the imperative is stronger, and you try to override that at your peril. Individual Cultures Matter!