To:    Comment at the Guardian
Re:    More than just a family history
Date: Wednesday 8 November 06

In response to the Guardian article, "Ancestor worship" by Zoe Williams and one of the comments attached to it

Link to article and thread at The Guardian.
 

1st Post

 
Correct me if I'm wrong, Zoe, but your mentioning that you were "researching black history" at the Public Record Office, suggests to me where you are coming from:

What a thoroughly noble thing for a Guardian columnist to be doing, and there you were surrounded, and probably inconvenienced, by all these "hideously white" old and middle-aged people researching their "hideously white" family histories. How annoying, unfair and - tendentiously, at least - "racist", that there is so much more material on white people than on black people, and that they should be taking such an unhealthy, self-centred - possibly even "ethno-centric" - interest in it!

Why do so many black people take such an interest in "black history"? Obviously, I would have thought, because they want to learn about people in the past they can relate to, i.e. other black people. Everyone can understand that. Zoe was even helping them in their endeavours with her work at the Public Record Office.

But if I admit to the fact (which I do) that central to my own interest in and love (and horror) of the history of western (i.e. European) civilisation (all the way back to the ancient Greeks, and into the prehistory beyond) is that it is so "hideously white" - full of people who look very much like I and my family do, and as a consequence can readily relate to - I'll be accused of "racism".

 
 
2nd Post
 
dave69 wrote, "Perhaps our problem now is that we have no future to look forward to, and so the past becomes, not a resource, but a refuge".

I'm afraid there is a terrible element of truth in that. Certainly, the way things look at the moment, with us still essentially in denial about the "inherent" non-sustainability of our economy and way of life, and desperately attempting the "impossible" task of making them so.

Those of us not obsessively preoccupied with (or addicted to) making/spending money, or compulsively distracting themselves in other ways (nowadays so richly catered for, especially by the media), have a strong and persistent need for a sense of identity and belonging that is "deep and meaningful", which I emphasize, because we know how easy it is to have a strong and passionate sense of identity and belonging that is very superficial and almost meaningless, if not totally illusionary.

The feelings of a football fan towards his club is a classic example; nationalism is another: "for God, Harry and St. George!", and off they went to slaughter the French (in France!). It is a need that has been ruthlessly exploited by leaders through out human history, and one that Jonathan Freedland, through his Judaism (which IS "deep and meaningful"), well understands. Muslims have Islam; Committed (rather than nominal) Christians have Christianity, or their particular version of it.

But the rest of us - non-Jews, non-committed Christians, non-Muslims, non-Hindus, non-Sikhs, non-whatever - what do we have? What is our identity? Where do WE belong, when we are not cheering on our football team, busy earning a living, or distracted by the media? Whereby I include specifically the "infotainment" peddled as "news", which we are all supposed to identify with and relate to - but often don't! Because our so-called British identity is in reality a myth, or, put more bluntly, a LIE, necessary to justify and maintain the power structures of the state. Which is why, of course, Gordon Brown and many others are so keen on it.

Family history, I suggest, is a good place to start looking for a deep and meaningful sense of identity and belonging.

But beware! It is necessarily about one's ancestors, their ethnicity, history and culture - and if you are a native European it is "hideously white".

My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org