Britain voted to leave the European Union yesterday. British betting sites gave an 80% chance that Britain would Remain. The Prime Minster campaigned for Remain. 50% of his MPs broke with the party to endorse Leave, along with the Opposition.
There are predictions of economic calamity. The British pound fell dramatically overnight, and stock markets around the world fell as well. There is a belief, promulgated by economists and the British ruling party, that to leave the EU will mean less productivity, less exports, less income, economic instability. All this is true this morning. None of it will be true in a year.
Britain, like the US, has lived under a prevailing social and governing ethos that is fundamentally liberal (not meaning democratic or any other party) in outlook. It is espoused, to one degree or another, by both major parties in Britain and the US. This ethos asserts that all people are alike, that all people are capable, their differences arise from arbitrary cultural values and lack of services and facilities. To exclude, to judge, is prejudice, hate speech, racism, sexism. You may speak any language you like, wear any clothing you like, misspell, use any mannerisms and spelling you like. To assert there is any national culture is jingoisitc nationalism and just a cover for insecurity and paranoia.
The sophistication of the liberal West is confirmed by the fact that everyone wants to come here and be part of what we have. The EU has welcomed many refugees of all types, but especially Muslim refugees from Eastern Europe, Syria and Libya. The US welcomes Afghani and Pakistani refugees and millions of Hispanic. These people, however, have not come to assimilate into the West, as immigrants once did. They do not come and learn the local language, adopt local customs and foods. They live in ghettos so segregated in France that the police are discouraged from entering them. Foreign flags are flown with pride and the flag of the home nation trampled and burned, and this is considered self-expression. Immigrants insist on services and translators, signs in their language, religious and dietary accommodations. All the while open borders and open societies have not brought widespread prosperity. Unemployment is relatively high across the EU zone, just as underemployment and abandonment of employment are here. Companies, shareholders and owners have prospered as work is done by cheap imported labor, or sent overseas. Ordinary workers are not doing well.
While these negative social and economic changes are occurring we are reassured by leaders that all this is good for us. Cultural diversity is good. A larger labor pool will let educated western workers do more interesting, complex and remunerative work. To question this mantra is to be labeled, to be shouted down, even to be prosecuted. Culturally, to assert the West is white and Christian, or that English is the common language, is the worst kind of racial and social prejudice. While we are being told what is good for us and how to think and act, dissatisfaction with society and government is higher than it has ever been, both in the US and Britain. In both countries about 70% of the electorate thinks their country is on the wrong track and their leaders out of touch with reality. The response of leadership is to denigrate these feelings and experiences. The people who feel them are bitter, afraid, ignorant, unable or unwilling through enculturated prejudice to adapt to a new paradigm.
Except that none of those labels is true. People of all backgrounds and educations are upset and adrift. We have lost a sense of who we are, what our culture is. The only culture is no culture, the only rule is no rules. That is not the basis for a society.
Britain finally stood up and said NO. We want control of our borders and our economy. Whether we can articulate it or not, we have a culture, a language, a food, a style. A money. And our immigrants are not so much immigrating as squatting, wanting to put up their style of culture inside of ours. And that is not acceptable. It is bad governance. We are tolerating our own destruction, and Britain finally said STOP.
Trump represents much the same feelings in the US. He may or may not win, but our 'rulers' would do well to pay attention and take seriously the feelings and experiences of the Mob. It is the electorate, and to sneer at it smacks of Louis XIV and Marie. I'm thrilled that someone finally said no to a false paradigm of culture and governance. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, any immigrant is welcome, is he is legal, and if he desires to be an American. Not an Italian-American, or Hispano-American, but American.
I hope that we are as smart as Britain in November, and reject a social paradigm that has us complicit in our own destruction.
Ted
There are predictions of economic calamity. The British pound fell dramatically overnight, and stock markets around the world fell as well. There is a belief, promulgated by economists and the British ruling party, that to leave the EU will mean less productivity, less exports, less income, economic instability. All this is true this morning. None of it will be true in a year.
Britain, like the US, has lived under a prevailing social and governing ethos that is fundamentally liberal (not meaning democratic or any other party) in outlook. It is espoused, to one degree or another, by both major parties in Britain and the US. This ethos asserts that all people are alike, that all people are capable, their differences arise from arbitrary cultural values and lack of services and facilities. To exclude, to judge, is prejudice, hate speech, racism, sexism. You may speak any language you like, wear any clothing you like, misspell, use any mannerisms and spelling you like. To assert there is any national culture is jingoisitc nationalism and just a cover for insecurity and paranoia.
The sophistication of the liberal West is confirmed by the fact that everyone wants to come here and be part of what we have. The EU has welcomed many refugees of all types, but especially Muslim refugees from Eastern Europe, Syria and Libya. The US welcomes Afghani and Pakistani refugees and millions of Hispanic. These people, however, have not come to assimilate into the West, as immigrants once did. They do not come and learn the local language, adopt local customs and foods. They live in ghettos so segregated in France that the police are discouraged from entering them. Foreign flags are flown with pride and the flag of the home nation trampled and burned, and this is considered self-expression. Immigrants insist on services and translators, signs in their language, religious and dietary accommodations. All the while open borders and open societies have not brought widespread prosperity. Unemployment is relatively high across the EU zone, just as underemployment and abandonment of employment are here. Companies, shareholders and owners have prospered as work is done by cheap imported labor, or sent overseas. Ordinary workers are not doing well.
While these negative social and economic changes are occurring we are reassured by leaders that all this is good for us. Cultural diversity is good. A larger labor pool will let educated western workers do more interesting, complex and remunerative work. To question this mantra is to be labeled, to be shouted down, even to be prosecuted. Culturally, to assert the West is white and Christian, or that English is the common language, is the worst kind of racial and social prejudice. While we are being told what is good for us and how to think and act, dissatisfaction with society and government is higher than it has ever been, both in the US and Britain. In both countries about 70% of the electorate thinks their country is on the wrong track and their leaders out of touch with reality. The response of leadership is to denigrate these feelings and experiences. The people who feel them are bitter, afraid, ignorant, unable or unwilling through enculturated prejudice to adapt to a new paradigm.
Except that none of those labels is true. People of all backgrounds and educations are upset and adrift. We have lost a sense of who we are, what our culture is. The only culture is no culture, the only rule is no rules. That is not the basis for a society.
Britain finally stood up and said NO. We want control of our borders and our economy. Whether we can articulate it or not, we have a culture, a language, a food, a style. A money. And our immigrants are not so much immigrating as squatting, wanting to put up their style of culture inside of ours. And that is not acceptable. It is bad governance. We are tolerating our own destruction, and Britain finally said STOP.
Trump represents much the same feelings in the US. He may or may not win, but our 'rulers' would do well to pay attention and take seriously the feelings and experiences of the Mob. It is the electorate, and to sneer at it smacks of Louis XIV and Marie. I'm thrilled that someone finally said no to a false paradigm of culture and governance. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, any immigrant is welcome, is he is legal, and if he desires to be an American. Not an Italian-American, or Hispano-American, but American.
I hope that we are as smart as Britain in November, and reject a social paradigm that has us complicit in our own destruction.
Ted
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