BREXIT: THE FRONT OF
THE QUEUE
By Wm. Franken
I say the
following as an expatriate Yank who has a deep love for both his native
homeland and his adopted one of Great Britain: there is great reason to foresee
positive consequences for American and British relations as a result of the
Brexit referendum. I say this based upon the principles of choice and merit
that are the philosophical underpinnings of a shared history and culture.
I did not
move to Great Britain because I have a burning passion for globalist
super-states led by a centralised group of unelected officials. I did not move
to Great Britain because I believe all cultures are equal and the flight out here
was simply shorter and cheaper than the one to Turkey. I did not move to Great
Britain to whinge about the perceived evils of the St. George’s Cross, the
Union Jack, or the concept of nationalism more generally.
I moved
here because, ever since the age of fourteen, after seeing my first episode of
“Monty Python’s Flying Circus” on our local PBS affiliate in Missouri, a
lifelong fascination for British culture was set in motion – for its history, music, literature, and most
especially, its comedy.
There are
times I recall an interview John Lennon gave to Tom Snyder during Lennon’s
final years in New York. At one point, Snyder asks Lennon why he wants to
remain in the US. To which Lennon answers, “Because this is where the music
came from. This is what influenced my whole life and got me where I am today.”
Well, that’s what I feel about Britain. It’s where the comedy came from. (Not
to mention The Beatles) It’s where so many things came from that influenced my life
and made me the person I am today. Britain is not just another place for me to live
and work. It is the realisation of a childhood dream. And I thank my stars
every day that dream has come true.
In my
earliest months out here, I would often respond to strangers who inquired about
my desire to relocate, that my love for British culture is akin to my love for
women. There’s a beautiful congruence at something being very similar to me in
many ways, yet still possessing a delightful plethora of intriguing differences
to maintain my fancy.
To be
sure, not all of those differences are necessarily attractive. During one of
the referendum debates, I voiced to a friend my persistent surprise at how
nakedly some pundits express their contempt of the working classes and proceeded
to compare this with how everyone in America at least pretend they come from humble beginnings. Which is why Hillary
Clinton will always inject a bit more down-home soul in her speeches when she’s
lobbying for votes in poorer communities. And which is why, having been born and raised
in a small Midwestern town, I have such identification and affinity for those regions
that voted to leave the EU, such as rural Yorkshire and the Welsh Valleys.
The United
Kingdom I fell in love with at such a young age, the United Kingdom from which
I learned irreverence, surrealism, and satire, the United Kingdom of the Magna
Carta, John Locke, and Winston Churchill, the United Kingdom that was ever in
my thoughts as I pursued a master’s degree in Restoration and 18th
Century British Literature – whilst others in my graduate class were beginning
to murmur about “white privilege”, “Western bias”, and other academic
forerunners to the modern university “safe spaces” – that United Kingdom awoke with
a mighty lion’s roar on Thursday, 23rd June, 2016 following what
seemed an irreversible sheep-like trudge into globalist rule. In the waning
hours of that night and well into the following morning, I, along with many
others the world over, witnessed something unfold and claim its rightful place
in history; something I had previously thought could only exist within the
dusky confines of Biblical lore:
David had beaten
Goliath.
If this
ancient metaphor seems a tad hyperbolic, one simply has to consider the tidal
wave of propaganda the Leave supporters had to successfully weather in order to
bring the long-forgotten principle of national sovereignty to bear. Bucking not
only against the raging waters of the EU transnationalists, but the overpaid
and undertalented celebrity elite, the monolithic pull of the mainstream media,
the clearly misguided yet unfortunately energetic youth, the ivory tower
academics and their penchant for elevating fear above hope, the self-interested
pleas from major corporations like Virgin and Ryanair, the meaningless mantras
of uncertainty and anxiety repeatedly hammered into the public psyche by
establishment figures in both the Tory and Labour parties, and even the veiled
threat from the Obama administration about heading to the “back of the queue” –
the Leave voters, with the quiet reserve so characteristic of this nation’s
people, maintained their course with firm conviction to the result so many
desired, yet dared not expect. In fact, it would not be amiss here to compare
the calm steadfastness of subdued principle in the face of such rabid opposition
to the exploits of this nation’s most beloved naval hero, Lord Nelson. For a
battered ship had survived a tumultuous storm in the hopes of bringing to these
shores once more the promised bounty of national sovereignty.
Of course,
if the Biblical and military metaphors are still a bit too grandiose, there are
numerous variations one could choose from to characterise the referendum
result. In my more light-hearted moments, I can also liken the success of the
Leave campaign to the triumph of the Delta Fraternity over Dean Wormer in the
70s American screwball comedy National
Lampoon’s Animal House; (Dean Wormer being alternately represented by
Jean-Claude Juncker, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, or George Soros.) The
hardworking underdog citizenry of this nation, once esteemed for their sacrifice
and selflessness, had made themselves heard, much to the chagrin of the
establishment. The dispassionate globalists, the one-worlders with allegiance
to neither flag nor country, bureaucrats and self-appointed experts who had for
decades deviously – and to their own recent detriment – conflated nationalism
with racism, could only stand by fuming, egg dripping down their disappointed
faces, as history changed direction in the course of a single night. The
spectacle was pure comedy at its anti-authoritarian best.
The theme
song for the referendum could very well have been David Bowie’s anthemic
“Changes”, although some reworking of the lyrics would have had to have been
undertaken. Given the demographic breakdown of the results, it wouldn’t have
made sense to sing about “these children that
you spit on as they try to change their worlds” For it was not only the working classes but the older generations,
those who could remember a time before the EU super-state undertook to over-regulate
and gut their vital industries whilst the Labour Party simultaneously insulted
their intelligence and social status – all the while incredulously and
patronisingly expecting them to vote in their favour! – that ushered in what we can only hope at this
stage to be another glorious revolution. Whilst the children, the millennials
too often looked at to lead the way – a continuation of the inverted hierarchy established
during the 1960s of youth over experience – were stodgily resisting any change
whatsoever.
With
notable exceptions worthy of recognition for standing outside the pack and
resisting the full thrust of political peer pressure, the younger generation,
by and large, were calling for nothing more dramatic than the prolongation of a
dismal and destructive status quo. And given the naked ageism and classism that
has permeated both mainstream and social media in the wake of this referendum, it
has become clear the “children” are now the ones doing the spitting.
Over a
week has now passed and I still occasionally see Remainers sporting their glittery
“I’m In” T-shirts and find myself wondering how passionate one can truly be
about an institution so patently glum, sedentary, and corrupt as the European
Union. I deign to envision another corollary besides rooting for a
multinational bank by which one isn’t even employed, but invariably come up
short.
I can,
however, always understand passion for one’s own nation. It’s unfortunate that a
good portion of the Remain camp cannot. To a multinational, populist passion is
always suspect. And to nullify any potential threat to the establishment,
mistruths about motives are invariably ascribed to nationalist sentiment – xenophobia and racism being the chief rhetorical
weapons. For in the EU schemata, as in the larger globalist world view, there
are no nations, there are no sides, there is no better and there is no worse. The
jihadist hotbed of Belgium, the failed economy of Greece, the non-integrated
asylum state of modern Germany, were all, until recently, placed on an equal
footing with Great Britain at the table of collective and crippling compromise.
No. Remaining
in the EU was not a passionate position, but rather the manifestation of mass gullibility
in blindly accepting a series of ad hoc
rhetorical equations. For every conflation of nationalism with bigotry, there
was a converse conflation of multinationalism with enlightenment. The EU, for
example, being conveniently equated with Europe and Europe being conveniently
equated with culture – wine, cheese and arts funding, if you will. Whereas a
cursory glance across the political landscape of the continent, with its
struggling unified currency project and the abject failures of its undemocratic
centralised powers, empirically demonstrates the EU is diametrically opposed to
the very European culture it purports to foster. I myself adore European
culture. One could in fact say I’m passionate about it. Which is exactly why I have
always decried the erosion of national identities that is part and parcel of an
EU vision. Great Britain may have been the first to leave, but let us hope, for
the prolongation of broader European history and culture, she will not be the
last.
But the EU
is merely a symptom of the wider ideological pathology of globalism. A
pathology that, like its smaller counterpart in the European Union, comes equipped
with its own reductive inferences: Individual nationhood is distasteful,
whereas the global community is, ipso
facto, a virtuous thing. Can anyone actually mouth these sentiments with a
straight face given that the global community today contains a theocratic Iran,
totalitarian North Korea, and an increasingly militarising China -- all the
while as the Islamic State continues to slash and burn their way across the
hemisphere and beyond?
Finding
themselves flailing in the face of reasoned polemics, there were moments during
the televised debates when the Remain camp desperately reached for the Nazi
card, sanctimoniously emphasising that that, too, was a nationalist movement.
Unsurprisingly, they had little to say for the fact that Nazism was also a socialist movement. A socialism predicated
on the flawed presumption that certain successes are ill-gotten and therefore
invalid – the same premise that served as lifelong justification for Hitler’s unabated
hatred and genocidal practices towards the Jewish people.
Of course,
no one should argue that the European Union is the second coming of the Nazi
party, just as, conversely, no one should draw similar comparisons to the nationalist
policies of the Brexit campaign. What can be said with any certainty, though,
is that continued adherence to the multinational socialist outlook of the EU would
only lead to the further diminishment of British exceptionalism. The fact that
Britain is now poised to reverse a decades-long slide into this quagmire, thanks
to the outcome of a single referendum, should be encouragement to patriots across
the Atlantic that the deleterious effects brought about by eight years of
Barack Obama’s denigration of America’s own exceptionalism can be just as
easily undone.
It is
telling that, during the final debate, self-proclaimed “citizen of the world” Barack
Obama’s name was bandied about numerous times as a fait accompli case for remaining in the EU. That is, until one MP courageously
pointed out that Obama, thankfully, was not going to be president forever. Why
it took so long for the Leave side to respond to the invoking of the
president’s name testifies both to how deeply affixed Obama’s cult of personality
is on the global stage as well as to the underlying fear that going against his
endorsements would lead to false accusations of xenophobia. For what
differentiates a xenophobe from a nationalist is that where the former would incorrectly
blame immigrants for stealing their culture, the latter would accurately blame
their leaders for giving their culture away. And though, undoubtedly, the Obama
administration has given much away, Brexit is now a signpost revealing how to
get it back.
Perhaps
Great Britain in particular and Western Civilisation in general may be slowly
awakening to the reality that there is no virtue to be had in
self-flagellation. I myself wouldn’t want to live in a United Kingdom that
endlessly apologises for its world status in the manipulative tones of guilt
and shame. I want to live in a United Kingdom that, whilst not glossing over its
historical transgressions, nonetheless endeavours to highlight and capitalise
on its many successes – a Britain that loves itself as much as I love Britain. We
often hear, for example, of disenfranchised minority youths in Western
societies becoming radicalised. Far too many leaders have sought an answer to
this problem with more apologies and more accommodations. But the question must
be raised, are these youths disenfranchised because the West has not apologised
enough or are they disenfranchised
because the West has apologised too much?
After all, why be loyal to a nation
whose rhetoric and actions are steeped in self-hatred? It’s virtually impossible
to love a doormat. Moreover, if the leadership of Britain and the US were to
widen their lenses and truly act upon the principle of “thinking globally”, it
becomes readily apparent that many enemies see apologies as opportunities.
Great
Britain is by no means out of the proverbial woods just yet. They have
acknowledged the futility of a doomed relationship and have expressed a sincere
desire to move on to other opportunities. In reaction, the EU leadership,
sobbing like a jilted lover, has screamed “Fine! Pack your bags and get out!”
And that is exactly what Britain needs to do, lest it backslide over the course
of two years into the same political morass from which it has only recently
voted to extricate itself. Yet the machinations within the Tory party following
David Cameron’s resignation portend grim challenges for the future of Brexit;
most particularly with the ascendency of Theresa May as the major contender for
the premiership, herself a Remain candidate from the exact same government.
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” the electorate might have hummed as
they heard her make the astounding assertion that “voters want more than a
Brexit PM” – belying, of course, the fact that Britain needs a new prime
minister precisely because of Brexit.
Furthermore, the two chief architects of the referendum and the ones who made
the most prodigious use on the campaign trail of Americanisms like
“Independence Day” – Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson – have both exited the
political stage, the latter having been betrayed by his fellow Leave-ally, the
Machiavellian upstart Michael Gove. Meanwhile, north of the border, Nicola
Sturgeon and her contingency are clamouring on again about independence for
Scotland in order that they can continue being dependent on the European Union.
As an expat watching all this infighting, backstabbing and manoeuvring unfold,
I can only sit back and paraphrase Ray Liotta’s narration in Goodfellas after Joe Pesci gets whacked:
“And we had to sit still and take it. It
was among the British. It was real greaseball shit.”
Despite
all this political negativity, however, optimism must and will prevail. For it
was optimism that defeated the scaremongering of the Remain camp at the polls
and it will be optimism that goes forth to guarantee the people’s wish that
Britain once more claim its rightful place in the world, this time on its own
terms. Brexit is about many things – sovereignty, trade, and immigration, to
name but a few – and yet all these could easily be distilled into two distinct
principles: Choice and Merit.
From its
very conception in the aftermath of World War Two, the European Union was based
on no grander principle than geographical proximity. This is not to discount
the altruistic motives certain European leaders had in reviving war-torn
regions of Western Europe, but when considering American initiatives at the
time geared towards the same goal of post-war revivification, most notably the
Marshall Plan, the idea of proximity alone justifying a political and economic
union – especially in this postmodern age of internet commerce – is utterly
absurd. Imagine how disgruntled, to put it mildly, Palestine would be if it
were finally granted statehood only to be told, because of proximity, it had to
immediately enter into a political and economic union with its arch-nemesis,
Israel. The unpleasant historical fact is, with Britain’s exit from the EU
imminent, the only Allied nation has left the European picture, leaving a map
composed of areas that were either neutral, occupied, or Axis powers during
World War Two. Whereas in order to account for historical merit in the context
of the global conflict often cited to justify the creation of the EU, one must
zoom outwards to incorporate allies such as the Commonwealth nations, Russia,
and, most revealingly, the United States. Nations with which a post-Brexit Britain
now has the freedom to choose to foster improved relations.
How ironic
it is that by abandoning globalism, the world suddenly gets much bigger.
It has been
posited by some in the Eurosceptic movement that the EU is, to some extent, a protracted
attempt to assuage German guilt. If that indeed be the case and Germany wishes
to continue making the culturally suicidal mistake of shaming itself out of its
Leibnizes, Beethovens and Einsteins, let them. But not at the expense of requiring
Britain to do the same with its Shakespeares, Elgars and Darwins – or, by
extension, America to do so with its Jeffersons, Gershwins and Twains.
Brexit has
the clear potential to represent a victory of merit over quotas and informed
choice over convenient proximity. And perhaps it will also prove the
long-desired harbinger that the flat-lined pulse of Western culture will beat
once more. Most importantly, however, it can be the opportunity for Britain not
only to inspire other nation-states within the EU to reclaim their own national
sovereignty, but to reverse and consequently invalidate Barack Obama’s
meddlesome naysaying when this determined nation finds itself at the front –
not the back – of the queue.
“Let us go forward together.” –
Winston Churchill.
