Great Britain always seemed to me to be steeped in tradition and culture. As an American, the tradition was easily apparent. Culture, on the other hand, was relative and likely something that we Americans did not judge very well.
Almost forty years ago, I was involved in running a small British subsidiary from the US. I would spend about one week a month in a small town located several hours south of London. As a young man, I thought the English more refined than my counterparts in America. The Managing Director of the company was polished, but inept. I ended up terminating his employment after much soul-searching.
During the process, I concluded that the average American was incapable of judging the British. I thought then that if you put three quite different Englishmen in a room, a banker, a train conductor and a construction worker, and stripped them of all clothing and jewelry that the average American would be unable to discern who was who. I assumed that was how my boss made the the mistake of choosing the Managing Director I ended up “sacking.” Americans are unable to differentiate between the accents so all seemed polished compared to our cruder society.
Apparently the refinement that I saw no longer exists according to Theodore Dalrymple. Society, if not civilization, in England, according to him, is rapidly regressing:
… a fifth of all people with assets of more than $640,000 are thinking of leaving the country. Personally I am surprised it is so few. Other surveys have shown that at least 50% of the population wants to leave, in the main to flee the other 50% of the population.
He attributes this not to usual economic factors like jobs, taxes, etc. Rather, he says it is because of the culture has become so abrasive. Mr. Dalrymple speculates:
What has caused this collapse of civility in Britain, which was, within living memory, a civil country? In my view, it is a demotic version of egalitariansim, allied with multiculturalism.
If he is correct, then the same behavior will likely follow in the US for we are on the same path. Indeed, several of our inner cities have already achieved or surpassed the levels which Mr. Dalrymple deplores.
RChavez: 
HappyinHowell: 
Mr Misno: 
Marsha: 
Brian Wilson: 
Steve: 
Larry Crouse: 
Brian Wilson: 
Monty Pelerin: 
Bob Snyder: 
In Coventry (UK), I recently saw a gang of boys aged around 8 or 9 running up to and spitting at, and slapping, and swearing, very aggressively, at students who were handing out leaflets to bewildered parents of potential students visiting the city’s university for an open day. This was in broad daylight, outside Coventry’s main art gallery.
I struggle to think of a better metaphor for what I fear is the terminal decline of our once-great country.
You can still get away from this, to an extent; our outlying villages in rural counties are still much as they were 50 years ago. But they’re extremely expensive to live in.
As it is on an island, a major distinction between the U.S. and the England is that there is much less space geographically for them to flee in England to escape the “benefits of diversity”. Hence, their leave the country dream vs., for example, our leave the immediate dysfunctional diversity (for example, moving from Los Angeles to Portland, or some other perceived whitetopia).
Although, even in the U.S. as city after city is abandoned to the groups of “youth” that flashmob their way through convenience stores and malls, or after a sufficient number of neighborhoods and schools become crime ridden and generally dysfunctional breading grounds for more crime ridden and dysfunctional neighborhoods (but hey the quality and price of tacos has improved), the U.S. residents with the means to do so will have similar dreams, if they don’t already. Yes, the negative externalities associated with our multicultural utopias combined with the Orwellian repetition that “diversity is our strength”, up is down, down is up, right is wrong, wrong is right, …, will soon enough make it such that Europeans are effectively ethnically cleansed from not just England and the U.S., but everywhere, and then the real fun will begin and the true utopia can start. Hey, come to think of it, the world will be just like Barry Soetoro’s dream, and, by definition, your worst nightmare.
Want to see the end game of the liberal welfare state? Watch “The Hunger Games”. THAT IS THE LIBERAL UTOPIA !!! In fact, I am SHOCKED they allowed the movie to hit the big screen because it exposes the left for what they are. I guess they understand that the average American is too damn stupid to put 2+2 together without an app.
I read the books; and I am also suprised by any movie message that even remotely contradicts the government is good narrative (among other cultural Marxist narratives).