Responding to my posting earlier today about my recent visit to the UK, Brian Bix (Law and Philosophy, Minnesota) writes with some interesting remarks:
"While everything you said today in your blog posting regarding some of the advantages of UK life was correct, the overall picture might be a bit more balanced (at least from my eyes -- as someone who lived in the UK for five years, and has visited regularly since, most recently last March): e.g., on religious matters, England still has an official state church (however poorly attended), children in public (in UK terms, 'comprehensive') schools still have mandatory prayer (C of E prayer, frequently imposed even in schools that are 80+% Islamic) -- though there have been some moves of late to get rid of that; there are still some restrictive rules on what can be open on Sundays (though far less restrictive than when I was first there in the mid-1980s); and one learns to value the simple secularized 'Season's Greetings' of the US when it is hard to find a card or public announcement in the UK in December that does not say 'Merry Christmas.' In many ways, the US is far more sensitive (at least in urban/suburban areas outside the south) to the presence and feelings of minority religious views than they are in the UK (I know of no similar reaction in the US to the uproar in London when the orthodox Jews wanted to place an 'Eruv' -- a string around a large area, using telephone polls, to allow them to carry things on Saturday).
"(And that is just religion; don't get me started on the class system, the monarchy, the House of Lords, and the tabloid press -- all, of course, less horrible than they were even a generation ago, but all still quite present (though the Lords may finally be entirely on its way out)."
Any other thoughts from UK readers or those who have spent time there? I've opened comments. No anonymous postings, as always.
