All human populations are in some sense immigrants. All hostility between different cultures in one place has an aspect of the classic immigrant grudge against the next boatload approaching the shore. To defend one’s home and fields and ancestral graves against invasion seems a right. But to claim unique possession – to compound the fact of settlement with the aspect of a landscape into an abstract of eternal and immutable ownership – is a joke.
Who invented political tolerance? The English invented it, it's something which has taken roots with some difficulty in Scottish politics. - Neal Ascherson
Who invented political tolerance? The English invented it, it's something which has taken roots with some difficulty in Scottish politics.
- Neal Ascherson
English stupidity is an organism so primitive that it is apparently impossible to kill off. It reminds me of Physarum Polycephalum, the gigantic slim… - Neal Ascherson
English stupidity is an organism so primitive that it is apparently impossible to kill off. It reminds me of Physarum Polycephalum, the gigantic slim…
The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it occurs alters wit… - Neal Ascherson
The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it occurs alters wit…
Broadly speaking, most people lived their lives in a kind of unwilling conformity. The thing was that they were offered, as time went by, various kin… - Neal Ascherson
Broadly speaking, most people lived their lives in a kind of unwilling conformity. The thing was that they were offered, as time went by, various kin…
There are many kinds of revelation. But the most powerful is the vision which transcends the mental boundary between life and non-life, and Scotland … - Neal Ascherson
There are many kinds of revelation. But the most powerful is the vision which transcends the mental boundary between life and non-life, and Scotland …
Darwinism did not strip meaning from the world but intensified it, 'by identifying it in as many aspects of life as possible'. - Neal Ascherson
Darwinism did not strip meaning from the world but intensified it, 'by identifying it in as many aspects of life as possible'.
Well, if there is a spectrum between ethnic and civic forms of nationalism, which is a rather schematic way of looking at it, all nationalism contain… - Neal Ascherson
Well, if there is a spectrum between ethnic and civic forms of nationalism, which is a rather schematic way of looking at it, all nationalism contain…
It was a real revolution. But with one missing feature. That is the feeling in a people that "We have done it once, and if the new lot let us down, w… - Neal Ascherson
It was a real revolution. But with one missing feature. That is the feeling in a people that "We have done it once, and if the new lot let us down, w…
History--the product, not the raw material--is a bottle with a label. For many years now, the emphasis of historical discussion has been laid upon th… - Neal Ascherson
History--the product, not the raw material--is a bottle with a label. For many years now, the emphasis of historical discussion has been laid upon th…
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