This isn't surprising, given human nature, and the evolutionary process that developed it. It's in our genes to distrust "the other."

But one of the features of the Anglosphere is its ability to build trust institutions, even in the face of physical diversity. I'd like to see some cultural cross comparisons. Any takers on further thoughts?

From the lecture link:

The common law, individual liberty, and representative constitutional government are proven institutions and values that, along with language, link the United States, Britain, India, Australia, Canada, the West Indies, Ireland, and New Zealand. The nations of the English-speaking world are also connected in their quiet cooperation on such diverse matters as the war on terror, tsunami relief, and U.N. peacekeeping operations.

From your post:

But one of the features of the Anglosphere is its ability to build trust institutions, even in the face of physical diversity.

A marvelous quote from Amartya Sen overheard at tea in England:

"The lady is as English as daffodils, cheddar cheese and chicken tikkin marsala."

I assert that the Anglosphere draws its strength from being an "open source" civilization which assimilates other cultures with the fictional Borg being a partial analogy. This is built on a framework that assumes ALL human beings have rights as individuals, rights that do not flow from the government.

= = =

On assimilation, take language as a metaphor. English steals words without shame and makes them "English" while French speakers are terrified about the corruption of their mother tongue. English speakers revel in making up new words and Shakespeare coined zillions of them. Being a mongrel language allows for greater creativity.

Underlying all this is a belief that anyone willing to join the party is welcome in.

= = =

But as an aside, do not get too complacent about Anglo superiority -- this video of some proud Eng-er-landers singing a A Bucket of Vindaloo is a useful corrective.

Oooops - cross cultural comparisons?

China? Confucian ideas about individual freedom and the rights of property should frighten us more than Marx, who after all was a westerner who spent much of his time in London.

India? A polygot nation well suited to merge with the Anglo-sphere. That said, perhaps there are Hindu ideas we can benefit from. Soon there may be more South Asian speakers of English than Anglo speakers of English and that will change us as well as change them.

Islam? They need a Martin Luther.

= = =

Where did the Anglosphere come from? IMHO from the same place as all of Western Civilization -- by blending the civilization founded at Athens with the one founded at Jerusalem.

Bill, I'm in awe of your ignorance of the present Anglosphere and its origins.

Well, not that so much, as your willingness to advertise it...

And I assert that you may be thinking about a fictious Anglosphere some wish to create from whole cloth.

England was a much conquered nation. 1066 and all that. Vikings, Scots and so on. Commerce with the world has always been an English string suit. And that has very much shaped English character.

The Irish preserved the ancient writings of Greece and Rome though the Middle Ages.

Embrace change -- this is the thesis of the guy giving the talk you linked:

The British brought to the New World a stubborn ability to thrive on diversity and change that was entirely consistent with their vernacular Gothic style. The Iberians, by contrast, brought a cultural tradition shaped like a vast baroque dome, a monument to their successful attempt to arrest the changes that threatened their imperial moment.

Ignorant, you say? :-)

Link

While Macfarlane traces the roots of Western individualism and capitalism to the early 13th century and suspects Germanic roots before that, his thesis ties nicely into the notion of the Great Tradition, defended by Lord Acton and others (see M. Stanton Evans' The Theme is Freedom for a modern defense), which asserts that these traits, along with libery, progress, popular sovereignty, science, the rule of law and many other Western values are actually God-given fruits of the Judeo-Christian tradition, beginning with the ancient Israelies and tracing through classical times and are definitely not recent inventions of modern rationalist man.

The modern Anglosphere owes its existence to ideas that collected in England from various places in the ancient and medieval world. And note that I support the idea of the exceptionalism of the English peasant as argued by Macfarlane against Macauley, Weber and Marx:

[Macfarlane] shows at length how medieval England fails to fit standard definitions of "peasant" society and in fact displayed the distinctive marks of individualism as early as the 13th century. Macfarlane doesn't claim to trace individualism to its roots (admitting that requires further study, although he suspects Montesquieu was right in assuming the English adopted it from Germanic roots, citing Tacitus' On the Manners of the Germans.