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> Brexit has also institutionalised lying in British politics, Lying is institutionalized long before Brexit. That's why the British is called "Perfidious Albi
by raincom 4y ago
> Brexit has also institutionalised lying in British politics,
Lying is institutionalized long before Brexit. That's why the British is called "Perfidious Albion".
Look at how Jean-Jacques Rousseau said in 1762: "The people of England regards itself as free, but it is grossly mis- taken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.The use it makes of the short moments of liberty it enjoys shows indeed that it deserves to lose them."
"The Russians, a Cambridge don noted, ‘consider the English as a mercenary nation’ and one of their princes publicly declared that ‘in England there is not an individual, patriot, or placeman, who is not saleable to the highest bidder’."
Citing from "Cultures Differ Differently" by SN Balagangadhara, Routledge, 2022.
- shubb 4y agoI don't normally downvote so I want to explain why I did it - I think your Rousseau quote is very specific to the historic events and discussions that it came from. He is essentially arguing that democracy is not as good as what we would now call a dictatorship of the proletariat - "The Terror" that he is implimenting in france. It's not really useful for understanding French attitudes to the English at that time, and it isn't particularly about their honesty. This... context blindness makes me wonder if you are an algorithm or something. It's hard to believe a human would be reading a book about that period and think "this is a good quote to show the British have always been considered untrustworthy". There are many examples of historic British untrustworthyness. I'll pick one - the fate of Duleep Singh. I'm sure that you can come up with others. Why these?