RE: Am I just extremely old-fashioned?

I'm happy to hear that, it's a sensible take! I'm somewhat familiar with British culture and thought those were just absurd too when they happened, but I thought maybe it's something I just don't get as an outsider. You're right, erasure of our national identities is a terrifying (and very overlooked) aspect of it all.

I wonder though if in a way our life problems/values haven't also become globalized in a sense - views on vaccines, traditional marriage and roles if there, all these things that we seem to talk of across the water as it were. I wonder if those don't supersede our national identity markers. What do you think?

But all that aside, congratulations to you and your wife and many happy years together! What a lovely story. Maybe creepy in some eyes, but it seems to have worked for you and her, so the right choice for sure! :D

I wonder if those don't supersede our national identity markers.

I certainly do think there are some shared values all humans hold, as well as other shared values certain sects of humans hold with each other (E.g., 'The West' vs 'East Asia' or something).

But with that in mind, national identity markers are still a thing, just a lower tier close to our hearts. The destruction of any tiers can't possibly be seen as a good thing. Losing, for example, Christianity. For atheists like me, that sounds great on paper.

But without realising, we're losing things that came attached with religion, something that has evolved over thousands if not tens of thousands of years. Values & virtues, treatment of others and charity, aesthetics, culture. Cathedrals to me mean so much more than just a symbol of royal greed. To an outsider, it's either a cool tourist attraction or a plot of land in a prime location for office buildings if we knock the 900 year old structure down.

So I worry we are becoming significantly more depressed and anxious worldwide simply because we've lost all trace of purpose. We only have little brains really and we can only realistically envision things on a small scale. Global scales are very abstract and low resolution. 'Equality' - sure, sounds nice, but what does it even mean? How does that affect my family and friends, or my community or whatever religion that goes on in my neck of the woods?

We're evolved to focus on our own immediate surroundings, and so I don't want to let that get overwhelmed with some vague Universal values

Anyway, I fear I went way too deep - soz lol