We all like to think of ourselves as a standard, and I can see that it is genuinely difficult for the English middle class to suppose that the workin… - Raymond Williams

It is then in making hope practical, rather than despair convincing, that we must resume and change and extend our campaigns.

It is as if a really secure nationalism, already in possession of its nation-state, can fail to see itself as 'nationalist' at all. Its own distinctive bonding is perceived as natural and obvious by contrast with the mere projections of any nationalism which is still in active progress and thus incomplete. At this point radicals and minority nationalists emphasize the artificialities of the settled 'common sense' nation-state and to their own satisfaction shoot them to pieces from history and from social theory.

Every aspect of personal life is radically affected by the quality of general life, and yet the general life is seen at its most important in completely personal terms.