There’s nothing like a terrorist attack on your nation and your way of life to bring out a bit of defiant pride, that is patriotism. I was never one to raise the flag but it still flies outside my home (though I will confess to wearing it less often on my lapel). In Britain, where Marc Danziger is visiting, he is seeing British patriotism rise. He reads a bracing set of articles in The Telegraph and quotes in full a stirring list of 10 principles the paper says British believe, including this one:
The English-speaking world. The atrocities of September 11, 2001, were not simply an attack on a foreign nation; they were an attack on the anglosphere – on all of us who believe in freedom, justice and the rule of law.
Amen, cousins.
Marc has lots of links from the Telegraph and then picks out this oddly insulting and inappropriate quote from a New York Times correspondent there:
So what do foreign correspondents think of the British?
Sarah Lyall, of The New York Times, says: “It used to be about the stiff upper lip, cream teas and cricket, but all that changed after Princess Diana died. The British don’t have an obvious set of values now other than their knack for self-depreciation.”
I’m going to bet that Ms. Lyall, seeing that in context of the stories, is cringing. Or I certainly hope she is.
(And editors worry about reporters blogging and saying inappropriate things…. when all they have to do is talk to other reporters.)
