Being in a country that just took a giant leap toward isolationism and veiled extremism is unnerving, to say the least. Britain’s exit from the EU will not end the world, but the world as we know it has ended. A new paradigm has emerged, borne out of ignorance and false pride. The EU is failing, and has been doing so for almost a decade, but the British votes that went against it weren’t driven by common sense. They were xenophobic and jingoist.
It’s a woeful outcome for a nation priding itself to have moved past the plagues of the 20th century. It alters the field in unnerving ways. I walk down the streets and every person I see I wonder, Did they vote Leave? If so, are they xenophobes? Do they believe there’s a genuine pathology in unchecked and mismanaged migration, like I do, or are they down and out racists? Do they feel that the EU is a bloated, inefficient behemoth that needs to be reformed, or are they narrow-minded nationalists who believe that every European citizen on British soil is stealing their jobs?
See, there’s a big difference between recognizing today’s pathologies and being pathologically bigoted, at least in my eyes.
I, for example, am not a fan of multiculturalism because multiculturalism emphasizes the differences between ethnic groups, leading to the abuse of democracy and the rise of tensions, if not conflict. A far better alternative is cosmopolitanism, where different people come together under an umbrella, integrating with each other toward a common cause, be it a nation, an economy, a cultural super-identity.
Take Rome, the great prototype of pan-European culture. When Rome ascended, it was cosmopolitan. When it fell, it was multicultural.
The same applies to today’s Britain, and Europe in general, and the West at large. The mainstream has ignored the pathologies of multiculturalism at its own peril. They handed over the initiative to the hot-air ideologs who, as they tend to do, wrecked the entire project. An ideological folly of centralized decentralization until the system cracked. Combine that with a high-handed EU directive ordering everyone how to deal with migration, imposing policies and quotas without offering money for support or relief, and one by one the member states of the European project began turning their backs on the principles of tolerance, inclusion, charity, and human rights.
And the far-right rose to claim ownership of the pathologies of unchecked migration and multiculturalism, wrecking whatever was left, as the far-right tends to do.
And here we are, with the cookie jar broken and the ruffians crawling out of the woodwork to pick up the pieces.
From your frustratingly candid Spin Doctor,
Eyes open, mind sharp.