No English people in England

A common topic that arises in Skypeland has to do with the state of Israel. Almost invariably, someone will ask why Israel exists, since it did not exist N years ago. They want to hark back to the way the world was 50 years ago or 100 years ago or 200 years ago or 500 years ago or 1000 years ago or more.

Recently I pointed out that if we followed this sort of logic, the English would have to leave England since the Angles are not native to the UK (the Celts and Britons are). The Norwegians would have to leave Norway since the Norwegians are not native to Norway (the Saami are). The Normans are not native to Normandy. The Japanese would have to leave Japan since the Japanese are not native to Japan (the Ainu are). Almost all of the people in North and South America would have to leave, as well as almost all the people in Australia and New Zealand. The Russians are not native to Russia. The Saxons are not native to Saxony. And so on and so forth. Few groups are "native" to a given area, whatever that means (I guess it means who settled the area first, but in some cases, that might be a very very long time ago).

People spew this kind of nonsense as though it means something. They forget that people move. Groups conquer each other. People intermarry and interbreed and mix. Usually someone who resorts to this sort of argument is just using it as a weapon and an excuse to spew hatred. Or is completely ignorant of history and human nature...