Bring Me My Arrows Of Desire
Sep. 16th, 2015 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloOur national anthem is needlessly divisive.
If I were French I'd have no problem singing the (hair-raising) Marseillaise and if I were American I'd have no problem singing the (stirring) Star-spangled Banner, but the British national anthem commits me to monarchical rule and that's something I'm against. Like Corbyn I refuse to sing it. I'm a Republican. And in spite of everything the establishment and its media would like us to believe there's a a strong, honest and deeply patriotic tradition of British Republicanism. Let's reel off some names. Milton was a Republican, so were Burns, Shelley, Wilkes, Paine and Blake; I'm happy to be of their company. And then there's Cromwell (that very great man) who stands in solid, grim faced, Victorian bronze outside the Houses of Parliament- as a reminder and a reproach.
There are alternatives. The Scots have already adopted Flower of Scotland. Here in England there's Jerusalem. I'd have no problem singing Jerusalem. I'm a patriot, only not a monarchist- and the establishment has conflated the two. Listen, you lot, we fought a war over this issue; which- incidentally- we won- and we're still here. It's wrong that a nation of two opinions should have a national song that so offensively promotes the values of the dominant party.
If I were French I'd have no problem singing the (hair-raising) Marseillaise and if I were American I'd have no problem singing the (stirring) Star-spangled Banner, but the British national anthem commits me to monarchical rule and that's something I'm against. Like Corbyn I refuse to sing it. I'm a Republican. And in spite of everything the establishment and its media would like us to believe there's a a strong, honest and deeply patriotic tradition of British Republicanism. Let's reel off some names. Milton was a Republican, so were Burns, Shelley, Wilkes, Paine and Blake; I'm happy to be of their company. And then there's Cromwell (that very great man) who stands in solid, grim faced, Victorian bronze outside the Houses of Parliament- as a reminder and a reproach.
There are alternatives. The Scots have already adopted Flower of Scotland. Here in England there's Jerusalem. I'd have no problem singing Jerusalem. I'm a patriot, only not a monarchist- and the establishment has conflated the two. Listen, you lot, we fought a war over this issue; which- incidentally- we won- and we're still here. It's wrong that a nation of two opinions should have a national song that so offensively promotes the values of the dominant party.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-09-17 11:12 am (UTC)I never quite warmed to the Marseillaise, in spite of being rather francophile. It's just too violent, with blood spilling all over and so on. I prefer the anthems where a country is defined by itself and not by it's struggle with enemies. (The Danish royal anthem, incidentally, is all about naval battles and crushing the Swedes, though of course traditionally the Swedes have won everything from wars to football matches... It has some wonderfully poetic lyrics, though, and is apparently among the oldest national anthems in the world, dating back to 1778 - though the tune may be older. Funnily enough, the lyrics were written for a vaudeville play...)
Gosh, I do ramble on. Sorry.