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> it's been authoritarian, chauvinistic (both internationally with imperialism and domestically via the aristocracy), and theocratic, ever since Harold Godwinson

This. The UK was a band of feudal kingdoms that somehow managed to create an overseas empire. The empire is now gone, and the feudal kingdom is struggling to transform itself into a modern nation.

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Everywhere was a band of feudal kingdoms. What’s so special about the U.K.?

Everywhere else transformed, whereas the British elite (in the power sense, not the skill sense) still seem to be proud of their feudal heritage.

Everybody has their station in life in the UK. Something like that?

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