Pride comes before a fall, they say, though I’m not sure who 'they' are or when they conducted a fact-checked double blind trial about falls and their preceding emotional or dispositional states. Neither-the-less there does seem to be some anecdotal evidence in the adage, so let’s roll worth it for the moment; It seems we are so proud we have decided we do not need to be part of a larger union, and so the UK has decided it can do better without Europe.
Were we proud? Pride seemed like a blip in the moral path behind us somewhere. Some (less than half it seems) having moved past pride were furious that others couldn't see how amazing this country is! Except for those who didn’t agree of course, they are part of the problem (of course). This too was also a cause for some irritation: How dare almost half of this great country be so wrong!
Were we all proud? The other half, well almost half, were in turn furious that anyone could be so stupid to disagree with them! Indignant that they couldn’t tell the lies from fact, or navigate the complex set of that which contains all Europe, and boil this down into a single word, either stay or leave. How dare people be uneducated!
Well, fury won the vote, and it seems the most furious side has carried the day. Democracy is all its glory has spoken. Good. The fall - the stock market fall - has occurred. The rationale (border controls, market controls, law controls, democratic controls) have begun to be reneged by those who promised them. As with all referendums, we "have spoken", but what we have said is uncertain.
I mean, we only said “Yes” really, but I still have follow-up questions. I’m sure a few people do.
These questions will be answered loudly by politicians, who generally jump to tell us what we said. Also the media is quite keen to say, be it The Sun, Sky, Mirror or Guardian, or whatever. Wouldn’t it be better for us to honestly, critically look at ourselves, and at what occurs now? ‘They’ have now got what they said they wanted. We will ask later, did they really get it, and did they want it? Was it partly our mode of discussion that led to the obvious divide of opinion? And hardest of all, in the end, will it be for the best or not?
Did those who wanted border controls, and voted for those controls, get them? Will they? Time will tell of course, but I believe not. So that’s a good thing perhaps. Ironic perhaps.
Will those who wanted less interference in UK law get less interference? It seems not, though time will tell of course. In which case, those who sought power will get less, which is a good, perhaps.
Did those who wanted more democracy get it? Was it a good thing in itself, or did it lead to good things? Only time will tell of course, but I suppose we can all dream of a world where the answers are yes, yes and yes. Is this something else we need to learn: That democracy is not a single thing, or identical to the good.
So with less money, power and border controls the newly empowered will go forth, and clearly demonstrate to us all exactly what kind of a choice this was. Perhaps it will work, but if it doesn’t, perhaps blame will lie where it should lie, and for once we will all see. Hopefully we will watch listen and learn this time, and experience exactly why what we did was right, or wrong. Perhaps we will learn lessons, mistrust the newspapers, press, media feeds and rose tinted glasses that led us here. And that, if it would happen, would seem to be a good.
Mistakes learned from are not wasted.
Pride has long lain inside us, on all sides of this debate. We have pride in the ghost of an empire that moved this very process closer. Globalisation would be hard without the trade, linguistic, cultural and administrative norms introduced by the British Empire. That empire is dead, but its effects live on. It is these effects that mean we cannot be separate, and we cannot be in charge, and we cannot have this pride any longer.
Those that voted against do not deserve scorn, they need to be reassured. It is fear that has led them to this choice, and you cannot beat or ridicule the fear out of someone. It’s like trying to plug the holes in your bucket with bullets, or teaching a child to be polite by telling them to “fucking stop swearing”. We need to talk frankly and honestly, and learn as a country to discuss anything without breaking the laws of logic or debate… and perhaps we are on the path to that future still.
By giving this 52% their way through disengagement and mistrust, we give a practical demonstration or these methods on both sides. Pride comes before a fall, let us hope we are resilient enough to get up again having learned better from where we've been.
