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I’m not Brexit/Remainer vote shaming but this whole debacle or what we’d call a wave has culminated in a collective numbness where no one actually understands what’s happening or what’s to come.
As much as I’m entertained as somewhat of a detached and indifferent onlooker, I can’t help but feel upon reflection, that it all reminds me of the James Thurber fable “The Owl Who Was God” from the book “Fables for Our Time and Famous Poems Illustrated”..
The fable tells the tale of an owl who was elevated to the lofty status of a God by the other animals in the forest because he could see in the dark and answer any question. The red fox asked if the owl could see in the daytime and he was laughed at by the other animals as they sent word to the owl to be their leader.
The owl appeared mid-noon when the sun was at its peak, walking very slowly, which gave the owl an air of importance and grace. The other animals started following the owl everywhere he went, taking up the cry “He is God” and when the owl began bumping into things, they began to bump into things too.
The owl came to a concrete highway and started walking up the middle of it, the animals continued to follow him and when the Hawk who was acting as outrider alerted them to a truck coming towards them pretty fast, the owl responded “To wit”. The secretary bird then asked the owl “Aren’t you afraid?” to which the owl responded calmly “Who?” for he could not see the truck.
As the creatures continued to cry “He’s God!” the truck hit them and ran them down. Some animals were merely injured, but most of them, including the owl, were killed.
Moral: You can fool too many of the people too much of the time
Britain’s exit from the European Union was a good 45yrs in the making because in 1975 the new Labour government held a referendum on whether to stay in the European communities, the result was to remain. At the time the Conservatives campaigned to stay in Europe whilst Labour wanted to leave. Interestingly enough the Labour Party’s 1983 election manifesto called for a complete withdrawal from the EU. Britain were also denied twice on two previous occasions to join EU’s predecessor the EEC by then French President Charles de Gaulle. A great title of a book will be…
“How the Euro-Sceptic became the Brexiteer and gained independence from the EU”
Interesting to observe how over time, the evolution of media output which is now readily accessible and incorporates a mixture of PR[opaganda], influence and a dissemination of ideas, found the perfect portmanteau [when two words merge] to create a rallying cry and an ambiguous movement to get behind. Arguably if it weren’t for Grexit (Greece’s brief episode) would we even have the slogan, however I must admit that Brexit is catchy as hell.
So what happens now?
On the aftermath of the gong, Britain -at least where I am- hasn’t descended into anarchy and riots of discontent. I feel like the general mood in the spaces I’m in is that for the moment there aren’t any drastic changes that start to affect me just yet.
However I must admit that I’ve been doubling down on all of my financial affairs, went through a phase of trying to learn a language, stay healthy and maintain a job that comes with health care benefits and is international so if shit hits the fan, I have a shot at emigrating elsewhere.
Like everyone else, on both sides, who buried their head in the sand, Brexit is still and at the moment nothing more than a bunch of newspeak, empty rhetoric, slogans, acronyms, and weird sounding loaded innuendo phrases like hard Brexit and back stop.
But yea… Do you know why you voted what you voted?
The question is purely rhetorical to be honest. I feel like there isn’t a person out there who has a clue unless you are part of the institution who planted the divisive seeds. Of course I wish not to be the tin foil lad however I feel like I was triggered to vote remain not knowing much about the other side, because what was being sold was a campaign that was anti-migrant and full of aggressively waving union jacks.
That is a scene of trauma for me as I’m the child of migrants who moved from the commonwealth to the mother country in search of a better life, full of opportunities for their children. All they got when they arrived as skilled workers was nothing but disdain, hate and aggression from a nation who seemed to forget all of what the commonwealth had scarified and contributed to its mother country; whether supporting the war efforts, in the depletion of its natural and people resources, or the exploitation of its people and culture having also been told by the mother country that it would always be second class and not worthy of being seen as equal.
Ok so… that’s definitely the rabbit hole of triggered emotion and trauma that led myself and many others to vote remain because as children of migrants we could empathise with the freedom of movement throughout the federal areas to find the opportunity to live the colonial dream.
I feel strongly that what us inner city remainers didn’t pay much attention to was that the votes are counted proportionately rather than from popularity. There weren’t enough of us 2nd and 3rd generation migrants, or people that believe in a world with no border restrictions spread across the UK.
Did you know that there are towns in middle England with less people that have more say in an election than those voting and living in densely populated inner city area?
Ima leave you on that one… Peace.
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