This is an information resource for the English - an indigenous (native) people of the British Isles. The purpose is to give assistance in their struggle against betrayal, State treason, and genocide.

Culture, Authenticity and Social Institutions

Culture is recognised as being: a set of social values, beliefs, customs, and skills possessed by a group.

Authentic Culture is the emergent set of cultural characteristics that have developed during the (ethnic) group's 'long, shared history'.

The Social Institutions are a physical consequence of the cultural characteristics of a group in terms of particular communal behaviour - of social organisation and socio-economic endeavour.

Authentic Culture

The characteristics of authentic culture (of a complex social group) are observed as the emergent (extra-ordinal) properties of that group [1] [2] - the propensities for particular types (modes) of cultural behaviour. These are essentially 'irreducible behaviours'. They cannot, in general, be attributable to the individual members of the group. However (and quite obviously) the emergent culture must be dependent on the members as a whole (in the formal sense of 'irreducible physicality').

These innate cultural properties are not static but change in a convoluted, evolutionary, and adaptive way [3]. The behaviour effects the social and physical context of the group (the group's external environment, in part via the activities of the social institutions) - which consequentially influence further behavioural development of the group [4].

The acquisition of social learning (of wisdom) is a vital part of this process [5] [6]. These innate properties of authentic culture are characterised by social behaviour that is: robust; highly adaptive; highly innovative; imaginative; enduring; experientially reflective (embodies cumulative social wisdom); sensitive to external limitations/constraints; intrinsically self-regulating; and self-moralising.

Therefore, most importantly, this process of authentic cultural development can (given a long period of demographic homogeneity and social continuity) provide for a stepwise creation of a sustainable way of life for the community - a process that is sensitive to geographical limits and resource constraints. As Mary Midgley observes, with regard to social history, and within her critique of conflict-based Marxist ideology: "It might therefore seem natural to say that, if anything is evolving, it is really the whole social structure." [7].

The actual cultural characteristics of a group will depend upon: (a) the 'starting' conditions (the original population and social/environmental circumstances); and (b) the particular 'historical journey' of that group (in terms of external 'disturbances', including the degree of demographic homogeneity and social continuity).

For the English this historical journey has been undertaken within a particular context: an island territory with a (mostly) naturally defined border and a long period of continuous occupation; an almost entirely homogeneous ethnic community; a diverse and complex ecology; an extraordinarily fertile land; an abundance of many different mineral resources; surrounded by a well-stocked sea; and a temperate and seasonal climate well suited to settlement and farming.

The 'long, shared history' of the native English people is a history of a people frequently subjected to trials and tribulations of the severest kind: conquest and occupation (Roman imperialism, Norman feudalism, NWO fascism); centuries of enslavement; over 300 years of devasting plague; crippling poverty and starvation; greedy land expropriation and eviction, over 250 years of exploitive industrialism; and of devastating civil, European and Global War.

'Englishness'

A careful examination of the history of the ordinary people, of the manner in which their communities responded to such trials and tribulations, and the particular ways in which the culture (and the social institutions) emerged and developed, gives us insights into the formation of innate cultural characteristics of the communal (ethnic) groups, of their partcular social institutions. There is a considerable amount of published material that gives detailed accounts of the history of 'ordinary' British people - for example: [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15].

For the ethnic English we find compelling evidence for the emergence of particular innate cultural characteristics (as propensities for particular forms of behaviour) that we may describe as follows: stoicism; tolerance; pragmatic wisdom; mutuality; experiential spirituality; anti-authoritarianism; altruism; volunteerism; and a vocation tradition.

Of course these categorisations are somewhat arbitrary and inexact - but are, nontheless, still very informative. Neither is this an exhaustive list.

We can give a particlary good example: the role of mutuality and altruism with regard to the people's ability to endure 300 years of plague - both the prior-capacity of the people to face that horrific ordeal (preparedness), and the way in which the effects of plague re-enforced the propensity for mutuality and altruism within the wider community. This illustrates the manner in which innate cultural characteristic can emerge and evolve.

Emergent Social Institutions

The particular social institutions of a group will be the result of the group's cultural characteristics and the environmental context (including physical and geographic constraints). It follows that for authentic cultures, that the social institutions are likely to have the innate properties listed above (including the ability to be robust, adaptive and enduring). The social institutions are, by their nature, highly visible (i.e. the system of law, administration, education, social welfare, etc.). For the ethnic English we have institutions of: English common law; The English Church; trusts and charitable institutions; labour unions and trade guilds; friendly societies, mutual associations and co-operatives; an equitable social welfare system; universal health-care provision; voluntary organisations and 'grass roots' campaign groups; and the various and particular arts and craft 'movements'.

The presence of these institutions is therefore dependent on the emergence of particular cultural characteristics - the propensities for particular social behaviour - and is generally initiated, and developed through 'grass roots' participation. It is an emergent process.

Two institutions particularly associated with the native people are of particular relevance with regard to contemporary social issues. These are The English Church with its close associations of a reverence for the sacred links between the people and the land, as a combination of Christian moral authority, demystified religious observance, and pagan numinous spirituality - and of English common law (and, especially, of an ancient role of protecting the people from State subjugation and authoritarian control).

The institution of a sovereign English Church is especially interesting - it is a remarkable and special aspect of English culture. The English Church, with its 'power-base' in the land, is essentially concerned with the divine consecration of the land and of a spiritual communion between a spiritual people and all nature. The custom has evolved in which the peoples' spirituality has become to be seen as 'a private matter' - of belief based upon peoples' personal experiences throughout their own lives (and not necessarily on a life dictated by the rote learning of scripture), and expressed communally in a most self-effacing and modest way.

The custom of English common law is at the heart of notions of English identity. In particular there is the fundamental understanding that trial by jury, the judgement of an accused by his or her peers, is in all true respects a trial by the country (of England) - as Peter Hitchins makes clear [18]. It is not a trial by the state, but a form of law that explicitly recognises the status of 'the people' (the English) within their own land. The philosopher Roger Scruton remarks: "But the resulting system [of English 'common law'] is of an admirable simplicity, embodying a vision of law that did not merely distinguish England and its colonies from almost all other countries in the world ... but provided a paradigm of natural justice." [19]. It is the constitutional position that no English man or woman can be punished under the law other than by the judgement of his or her own kinfolk (i.e. peers - people of the same status).

It is in this sense that the common law provides a recognition of the true identity of the English indigenous ethnic identity (and by extension, Scottish, Welsh, ... ethnic identities). English common law is (in part) an embodiment of English national identity.

English common law is based on three core principles: 1) not to do any unnecessary harm to others: 2) not to damage, steal or otherwise misappropriate somebody else's property; and 3) to neither knowingly engage in nor knowingly endorse a fraudulent contract.

References

[1] 'On Emergence and Explanation', Nils A Bass and Claus Emmeche, in Intellectia, 1997/2, No 25, pp 67-83

[2] 'Emergent Properties', Timothy O'Connor and Hong Yu Wong, Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2002

[3] 'What is Cultural Kinetics?', eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/pgraph/structr.htm

[4] 'Niche Construction, Biological Evolution and Cultural Change', Kevin N Laland, John Odling-Smee and Marcus W Feldman, in Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 23(I), 1999, Cambridge University Press

[5] 'The Emergence of Hayek's Ideas on Cultural Evolution', Bruce Caldwell, Department of Economics, UNC-Greensboro, in Review of Austrian Economics, 13: 5-22 (2000), Kluwer Academic Publishers.

[6] 'Cultural Evolution, Collective Learning and Constitutional Design', Viktor Vanberg, in: Reisman D. (Ed.) Economic Thought and Political Theory, pages 171-204, Kluwer, Boston, USA, 1994

[7] 'The Myths We Live By', Mary Midgley, Routledge, London, 2004, page 84

[8] 'The Isles - A History', by Norman Davies, Pan Macmillan Ltd., 2000

[9] 'The Britons', by Christopher Snyder, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2003

[10] 'Identity of England', by Robert Colls, Oxford University Press, 2002

[11] 'When We Lived In Communities - Working-Class Culture And Its Critics', Robert Colls, Professor of English History, School of Historical Studies, University of Leeds.

[12] 'My East End', by Gilda O'Neill, Penguin Books, London, 2000

[13] 'The Likes of Us', by Michael Collins, Granta Books, London, 2004

[14] 'Our Hidden Lives - The Remarkable Diaries of Post-War Britain', by Simon Garfield, Ebury Press, London, 2005

[15] 'British Society Since 1945', by Arthur Marwick, Penguin Books, London 2003

[16] 'London at War - 1939 to 1945', Philip Ziegler, Pimlico pub., London 2002

[17] 'Our Longest Days - A Peopl's History Of The Second World War', Ed. Sandra Koa Wing, Profile Books pub., London 2008

[18] 'The Abolition of Liberty - The Decline of Order and Justice in England', Peter Hitchins, Atlantic Books, London, 2004, pages 185 and 187

[19] 'England - An Elegy', by Roger Scruton, Pimlico, 2001, page 113

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