A reference in my grandmother's diaries to "Britain Can Make it" started me thinking (about time, some might say). This exhibition was held between September and November 1946 at the Victoria and Albert Museum and aimed ‘to promote by all practicable means the improvement of design in the products of British industry’. Not being around at the time in any meaningful capacity, I have no way of telling how the country as a whole reacted to the exhibition's clever double meaning*, but I suspect that the proverbial man on the Clapham Omnibus, still in the grip of post-war pride and solidarity, took it at its face value.
* Perhaps even a triple meaning, with a reference to "Britain can take it".
I don't think any official body would dare to devise an exhibition with a name like "Britain Can Make It" nowadays. Even in 1968 the "I'm Backing Britain Campaign", after a bright start, soon fell victim to the cynicism of the times and ended in ignominy. It's not that we're no longer proud of our country, it's just that we resent any attempt by the authorities to marshal or orchestrate such pride. (Even as a boy, I noticed that few of us clambered manfully to our feet for the National Anthem at the end of a film show!)
Compare this behaviour with the prevailing attitude in the USA. The Americans mock those in authority as much as, if not more than, we do. But their patriotism, for I suppose that's what I'm talking about really, is more open and perhaps naive than our brand. When my daughter was living in Houston, my two little grand-daughters Emma and Héloise, daily pledged "allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all". I don't think that sort of thing would go down very well over here, do you? Next they'll be trying to get us to laugh in church.
This teaching of small children to place hands on hearts and pledge loyalty/patriotism to their country is somehow alien to us, seeming sentimental, simplistic and even hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteThese same children are then taught about their "right" to bear arms. Is it any surprise, we wonder, if far too many of them go on to gun down each other?
But I think our patriotism is of the unsung variety. It's there all right - you would only have had to reside in this country at the time of the invasion of the Falkland Islands to know that deep though it is we believe in no messing with what's ours. What may have mislead a lot of onlookers at that time was the fact there were two culprits - the actual invaders and those who had tipped the wink that such an excursion would not be all together unwelcome.