Cultural Mis-identity

I often get the typical assertions from North American neo-pagans that they're ethnically some kind of nationality or another. What they often forget is this thing we call „Zeitgeist“, namely the period attitudes of a culture. Take for instance what the English call a mid-Victorian. It refers to a pious abstinence bound to keep a few rude skeletons in the closet. Indeed , the Victorian Age was rather schismic in this way; with its stiff-upper lip ethos on outward appearances of the upper class wannabe catering to the gentry. What they don't tell you about is the household concubine, just in case peerage has its patrilineal shortcomings. Of course whatever doesn't measure up to that regime, stays among the servants until further notice. This way, all due secrets are kept neatly in the family closet. Failing this, there were always magisterial opportunities elsewhere, namely the colonies. That is where my father's parents landed.


On my mother's side, things were a hell of alot more complicated. As magistrates of the Hapsburgs, they were appalled by Bismarck giving in to the national socialists. It was their worst nightmare become reality. Her father landed in a labour camp, and she was involuntarily conscripted into the Luftwaffe and treated with utmost suspicion and contempt. Much of her family committed suicide rather than divulge the names of their jewish employees. Needless to say, at the first window of opportunity she fled to Prag, then managed to get the last train out of Dresden We've had a bitch of a time trying to track down all the records for some kind of compensation but between the military archives of England, America and Poland and each wanting a ridiculous fee, it's futile. After being employed by NATO at the time when Putin was liaison officer in Baden, there's no doubt the KGB had all that on file too. This may seem so long ago but I still shake my head saying WTF? when I think about it. So when people talk to me about their alleged ethnic roots, they should ask themselves about the circumstances that landed them when and where, before assuming they can relate to some ethnicity or another.


https://youtu.be/UmMv2IS433A