OT The Universal Englishman was Re: tolkien?

I suppose the commonest trait would be a belief in progress.

Adherence to some form of socialism is the form it usually takes - though that
isn't something that Hogben pushes.

Another very strong belief is the need to educate - Malcolm Muggeridge takes
them to task for this in one of his diatribes, though he doesn't use the words
I would use.

Essentially, the "Universal Englishman" is an Englishman who is educated
(self-educated in the case of Olaf Stapledon), regards himself as a citizen of
the world (as opposed to the absurd jingoism that was prevalent in England at
the time), and at some point, involves himself in activism and/or education of
others with a socialist slant to it.

Christchurch (NZ) has an organization, the WEA - the Workers' Education
Association - dating back from that time.  Now education for workers is
regarded as essential and employers are soaking the taxpayer in demands that
the taxpayers cough up for it before they consider employing anybody, it's
lost a bit of its shine.

Wesley Parish

Quoting Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>:

> At 09:23 9.12.2003, Wesley Parish wrote:
>
> >(I'm not dissing the Universal Englishmen, not at all - Olaf Stapledon
> was one
> >of the greatest of them, and he was a major influence on me, keeping me
> sane
> >during a troubled adolescence with "Nebulamaker", "Starmaker" and
> "First and
> >Last Men".)
>
> What do you mean by 'Universal Englishmen'?
> What's the common trait(s)?
>
> /BP 8^)
> --
> B.Philip Jonsson mailto:melrochX@melroch.se (delete X)
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__
>  A h-ammen ledin i phith! \ \
>  __ ____ ____ _____________ ____ __ __ __ / /
>  \ \/___ \\__ \ /___ _____/\ \\__ \\ \ \ \\ \ / /
>  / / / / / \ / /Melroch\ \_/ // / / // / / /
>  / /___/ /_ / /\ \ / /'Aestan ~\_ // /__/ // /__/ /
>  /_________//_/ \_\/ /Eowine __ / / \___/\_\\___/\_\
> Gwaedhvenn Angeliniel\ \______/ /a/ /_h-adar Merthol naun
>  ~~~~~~~~~Kuinondil~~~\________/~~\__/~~~Noolendur~~~~~~
> || Lenda lenda pellalenda pellatellenda kuivie aiya! ||
> "A coincidence, as we say in Middle-Earth" (JRR Tolkien)
>


"I me.  Shape middled me.  I would come out into hot!"
I from the spicy that day was overcasked mockingly - it's a symbol of the
other horizon.

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