Frankly Outdated

I somehow got sucked into an email argument over open borders and Douglas Murray's book, The Strange Death of Europe, which I haven't read, although sometimes I feel that I have, since a person I live with has told me so much about it. The argument was with a young editor at a large newspaper, and, because of this, I found it particularly dispiriting that, instead of being able to carry on a genuinely thoughtful debate, my concerns, where they diverged from his, were simply brushed aside, with statements such as the following:

"The whole terrorism/Rotheram/fgm thing is just an easy way of signing up to this idea that Europe should be preserved as some kind of judeo-christian monoculture which is frankly a bit outdated."

Just to tease out one of those issues, the "Rotherham thing" - (which has to be seen hand in hand with its counterparts in Telford, Derby, Newcastle, Oxford, Rochdale and possibly other places as well) - indicates a worrying situation for women in countries where people of Islamic origin settle, as does "the fgm thing". While I am definitely not saying that all people of Islamic faith are going to take part in or support such things, a Venn diagram covering those who do get involved and the whole of society would include within it only people of an Islamic persuasion. 

This indicates to me that it is unwise to dismiss without proper attention concerns about such behaviour and the cultural attitudes from which that behaviour arises; apart from anything else, suggesting that we do so seems to me to indicate a lack of concern about women. Rather, it is important and necessary to be alert to possible problems of perspective when people brought up in an Islamic culture arrive in a non-Islamic country. This is not racism; this is about culture and avoiding clashes between people with very different outlooks and beliefs. As a female, I do not want to give an inch on the rights of my sex, particularly if the reason for doing so is the accommodation of religious beliefs that have absolutely no cultural connection to the culture of the countries of which I am a citizen.

But such a view is, it seems, "frankly a bit outdated". 

After that argument, it was cheering for me to spend a Sunday in rural Slovakia and find that many Slovakians are also "frankly a bit outdated" and seem to be naively enjoying their attachment to "some kind of Judeo-Christian monoculture". In every village we passed through it was exceptionally moving to see that the churches were not merely full but absolutely overflowing, and that the locals appeared to enjoy dressing up in their own national costume - none of these places were tourist spots, so what they were doing was motivated purely by their own pleasure in the activity. 

Nationalism is the big sin these days, (this was also made clear to me in the above argument, although once again, worryingly, given our news is in part filtered through this person, my interlocutor did not seem to have been trained by his tertiary institution to articulate the thread of the argument that led to him saying that he had to "completely disagree with" me "that nationalism can be a good thing".  I suppose the argument in his mind must be that the rise of Hitler was an example of nationalism as a terrible thing, but the other side of that coin is that I cannot imagine how Hitler would have been beaten without a reciprocal nationalism emanating from the British Isles).

Anyway, here are some photographs from a sunny Sunday in Slovakia, spent among many people who are "frankly a bit outdated". Long may they remain so:

For those not particularly keen on clothing and embroidery, I should add that, as well as traditional costume, I saw what I would call an almost traditional tractor. It reminded me of my brother's story about a farmer who advertised for a wife. The farmer's small ad reportedly read as follows:

"Farmer seeks wife, preferably 25-35 years old, healthy, with own tractor. Please send photograph - of tractor"

For any seamstresses, here is a close up of a traditional Slovakian male trouser, which I hope will assist those keen to try their hand at making a pair at home: