GFS, shame you got off onthe God thing, becase you are right about the swastika.

I'm not sure that the US really understands "class" as used in Europe. As I understand the USA, "class" is determined solely by wealth. In the UK it is much more closely linked to speech, manners, and parentage (and grandparentage etc) - and "U" "non-U" things.

In France a ci-devant "de" (the "particule de nobilite") goes a long way - but again speech and behaviour patterns seem to be important.

Germany I find less easy to understand.

Spain and Italy seem largely to have regard to lineage, and also are unlikely to regard premiership footballers as anything other than rich louts - or indeed "Posh" Spice as anything but "vulgar, vulgar, vulgar".

One's cultural heritage includes, IMHO, lineage, and teh habits of ones ancestors, and also the habits of those forming part of one's ancestors' societies and thier habits (and the same factors of the present day. Not all should be embraced - for example dog and cock fighting, and bear and bull-baiting (not often to be accepted as song topics). Pre-Queensbury Prize fighting is at present at an ambivalent stage, as are hunting with hounds and whaling - but still valid song topics in some cases.

In this wider context, football riots of the 70s are part of the UK's heritage, now to be condemned - like witch trials and the forced marriage of rape victim to rapist.

We need to know who we are, and that includes where we came from. By and large we need,to be confident in our identities, to be proud of where we came from (as far as possible). Some aspects of our past need to be rememberd only as history, not as matters of celebration, but if we do not remember what we did wrong as well as what we did right, then we do not truly know who we are.