The Special Relationship

The americanisation taking place in Britain is unprecedented in Europe. Yet we Britons who seek to denounce it are accused of being anti-american and even somehow un-British while we are in fact defending what is left of British culture and interests.

Why, in spite of the growing and almost complete americanisation of British society at every level, is there no debate in Britain about our unequal relationship with the US and what can be done to redress it?

Britain threw her lot in with America after WW2, calculating that the future was American and that thanks to sharing the English language, they would have a competitive advantage compared to all the other countries of the new Americanised world. But this was a Cold War Mirage, for as strong as it is, we now know that America will always have to deal with a multi polar world. Worst of all, Britain underestimated the cultural power of America, especially over vulnerable nations who speak the same language. Since then we have seen our own cultural identity dwindle to the point that when you ask a British person today what their country, or britishness stands for, they can't answer the question, so overshadowed Britain's identity has become by America's. They probably know American "movies" or music far better than their own and now that they don't have much genuine home grown culture left, they try hard to think that American arts and even history are, in fact, theirs.

Politically, Britain has lost all semblance of independence from the US. This is because, as we saw in Iraq, Britain's military and intelligence services are highly dependent on America, and simply have no choice: our nuclear bomb won't work unless its owners at the pentagon say so, and even the British media is dominated by American interests: Rupert Murdoch does not hesitate to promote his American ideals in the British press, to the detriment of local interests.

When the Bush administration couldn't invade Iraq alone and needed allies in order to legitimise a war that every analyst and specialist predicted would be disastrous, they just called 10 Downing Street to give their orders. Why do you think Britain, which is far more experienced in the region and did not share the neo conservative ideology and aims, simply followed and yet never explained why? Because they did not have any choice.

But America is not the "bad guy" to be blamed for everything negative that is happening to the UK. Of course they are often responsible, but only because Britain and especially British people have blindly offered themselves up to them. It is hardly surprising, in their position anyone would have helped themselves. Britain offered its gold, its defense, its strategic outposts, its economic structures, much of its media and especially its culture, to the USA. Our leaders renounced on maintaining a strong independent identity and disabled themselves from resisting American dominance in any way.

Formerly positive British values such as chivalry, fair play, standing up for the underdog, austerity, modesty, guile, pragmatism, even pessimism, are now derided and shunned in favour of a far more rationalist and materialistic approach to life: "if it aint got a price tag, it aint worth anything" "always back a winner" or "nice guys finish last" : exit the gentleman.

Walk down any British high street today and see whole families of bloated Brits spending their free time in identical chain stores, imitating American vocabulary, listening to hip hop music, walking while eating junk food: this is a colonised land: militarily, economically but especially culturally occupied. When you manage to culturally dominate another society and shape its mentality your way, you don't need armies, laws or multinational companies to rule this country, its people voluntarily accept your dominance because they can't distinguish their own interests anymore from yours.

As hard as England tries to become American, it will always remain a sub American culture, a pale copy of the original. Is this the only thing we can hope for? To beat the Puerto Ricans into second place?