Apropos of the piece below this one, about ethnocentrism and ethnic identity among different peoples, the name of Andrew Fraser came up in a comment, and I happened to read this quote from his book The WASP Question:

“The defining characteristic of WASPs White Anglo-Saxon Protestants] is that they are much less ethnocentric than other peoples; indeed for all practical purposes Anglo-Saxon Protestants appear to be all but completely bereft of in-group solidarity. They are therefore open to exploitation by free-riders from other, more ethnocentric, groups. It seems unlikely that nominally Americanized Changs, Singhs, and Gonzales are as committed in a practical sense to the anti-discrimination principle as Anglo-Saxon individualists. There is no shortage of evidence to suggest that the Changs, the Gonzales and the Singhs (not to mention the Goldmans with their well-known animus toward WASPs) still practice forms of ethnic nepotism strictly forbidden to Anglo-Protestants. In these circumstances, an interesting question arises: are contemporary WASPs entitled to recognition as an historic people? If not, why not?”

That’s something to ponder. I would say “yes” to the question as I did in fact, in a post the other day, on this blog. But maybe that is a sentimental response rather than a ‘reasonable’ one. Obviously the naysayers out there say the English are down for the count. But maybe they are the ones doing the wishful thinking.

I am thinking of the Scripture, in Psalm 83, and the phrase, ”come, and let us cut them off from being a nation…” I think that’s what’s happening, really to all of us in the Anglosphere and in former Christendom. But according to Scripture, God ordained nations as a way of organizing humanity. One World just returns us to Babel. I suppose this makes sense only to Christians.

But are we cut off from being a nation? People can still be a nation without a state or a territory that is theirs — but we don’t have that, really, and we are weak on sticking together. And the social cohesion is at the heart of being a people or a nation.