“What surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.”
This is the Jo Cox quote repeated most often in the wake of her brutal slaying last week. It says a lot not only about the kind of person she was, and the kind of humanity she brought to the blood-sport of politics, it also says a lot about the kind of people who wanted her silenced.
Britain has managed for the most part to avoid the sort of culture war that has plagued the U.S., but the Brexit debate, linked as it has been to the debate on immigration, has opened fissures that suggest those days could be over, which (apart from the personal tragedy that befell Jo Cox and her family) is what sensible people are most upset about. People on both sides of the debate are surprised, shocked, saddened that it has come to this.
Crudely put, Jo Cox’s murder is a symptom. Friends who are real Brits (not fake ones like me) say this kind of thing is just not supposed to happen in Britain. MPs conduct their “surgeries” in their local constituencies unprotected, police aren’t supposed to carry guns, and so on. These are quintessentially British norms, and we sure as hell aren’t ready to let them go. We look cross the Atlantic and know how precious they are. Jo Cox reminds us what happens without them.
History is sort of my thing, so I tend to see cycles at work when developments of importance occur. At the same time, I try to be careful. I believe the patterns you might discern depend quite a lot on the periodicity of the cycle you select for observation. The longer the arc, and the broader the context, the more data points you have from which to draw valid conclusions. Each event may seem incidental or trivial in itself, since the backdrop is so large. However, a broader arc allows individual events to be considered and understood as either a part, or not, of an historic trend. What matters to the historian is the broad sweep and its consequences, not incidental brush strokes.
In contrast, the shorter the period selected for observation, the more potentially momentous an individual event may seem, even if it isn’t really all that important in any meaningful way.
It is for this reason that people tend to think of theirs as “the” all-important, epoch-defining moment. They almost always flatter themselves. Usually this is born of ignorance: a failure to appreciate that what they think they are experiencing is not, actually, new. Or special. Or portentous. Or catastrophic. They almost never have remotely the correct perspective. And they never can seem to get over themselves.
This explains the endless cavalcade of millenialists, doomsayers, fear-mongerers, supremacists, homophobes and other extremists who must convince themselves of their special insights in order to rationalise the awful things they tend to believe or, worse, do. It also explains demagogues, who tend to be revealed as highly intelligent but unstable narcissists: they thrive by cynically exploiting people’s lack of perspective and fear. Any resemblance at this point to Donald Trump is purely coincidental.
To see the debate in Britain descend to U.S. levels of intolerance and fearmongering is, to say the least, dispiriting. But I also detect in the polity - on both sides of the debate - that other quintessential British characteristic: rejection of and resistance to stupidity. I am reminded of the good Major (Graham Chapman) in the old Monty Python days whose main purpose was to interrupt skits and put an end to them for once and for all on the basis that they had exceeded tolerable silliness. When a Brit says, “that’s just silly”, that’s the end of it. You’re done.
In the end, Britain is pragmatic and pragmatism tends to prevail. Yes, of course I voted to remain. I live in London and know that Brexit would be shitty for the city I love, silly city that it is.
More important than the prospects for London, however, is that broad arc I mentioned earlier. I have dealt with Brussels, and Paris, more than I’d care to admit. I’ve sat through harangues by Brussels bureaucrats and suffered through attacks on “anglo-saxon capitalism”. Brussels promulgates much silliness. But I also know where Europe has come from. I know it has an unfortunate tendency to tear itself apart, and I know it is weaker divided.
As for the migration issue, I know that Germany has throughout its history absorbed far higher numbers as a proportion of its total population, and has emerged the stronger for it. I also know that the ongoing tragedy in the Middle East that has impelled the refugee crisis is what must be tackled. Turning them away at the borders by itself solves nothing. And to think that the UK buys security through Brexit is laughably naive.
I realise that I may have heaped contempt on the fears of a beleaguered – and diminishing - middle class. Our children’s prospects are not what ours were when we were their age. There are real problems faced by struggling people, and there are real problems faced by the planet which is our home. Demographics, environmental degradation and warming temperatures, and shifting economic and geopolitical trends present huge challenges. We don’t have a prayer of succeeding in doing what needs to be done to tackle any of them if we continue to fulminate about Mexicans or Syrians or whether Hillary murdered Vince Foster (yes, the email server is a problem - a serious problem: I’m sorry but there are much bigger fish to fry). Blaming Obama, or Bush or Bill Clinton for the state of America’s fiscal or trade imbalances, the widening income gap or the paucity of decent employment ignores the reality of overwhelming global trends. If you think that starting trade wars or stopping immigration (illegal or otherwise) will make any difference, well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but such efforts always make things worse. History – the long arc – can be harsh, but it is never wrong. Demagogues have proven time and time again their willingness to delude the masses into believing there is an easy answer in the form of a silver bullet, but in the end the gun is always pointed at them.
My fear is that the silliness – particularly in America – will prove impossible to overcome in order to get on with addressing real problems. One cyclical tendency hangs over us like a Sword of Damocles: political elites become paralysed in their dysfunction as the people sleepwalk toward catastrophe. That catastrophe will be a major war, environmental collapse, disease or similar event. Given the crowded conditions we live in today, such events (logically) would seem likely to be very impactful if any of them were to occur.
We can choose to be grownups, to act responsibly, if we want to, if we really care about the children. Responsible people know there are no easy answers, progress occurs incrementally, every solution has a price and there is no free lunch. Responsible people also know that, at the same time, change without compassion is self-defeating, and that at some level we are all bound together in common purpose, whatever our differences. Jo Cox was exactly right on this: it’s why she was killed and it’s why she would insist that we carry on.
This is the Jo Cox quote repeated most often in the wake of her brutal slaying last week. It says a lot not only about the kind of person she was, and the kind of humanity she brought to the blood-sport of politics, it also says a lot about the kind of people who wanted her silenced.
Britain has managed for the most part to avoid the sort of culture war that has plagued the U.S., but the Brexit debate, linked as it has been to the debate on immigration, has opened fissures that suggest those days could be over, which (apart from the personal tragedy that befell Jo Cox and her family) is what sensible people are most upset about. People on both sides of the debate are surprised, shocked, saddened that it has come to this.
Crudely put, Jo Cox’s murder is a symptom. Friends who are real Brits (not fake ones like me) say this kind of thing is just not supposed to happen in Britain. MPs conduct their “surgeries” in their local constituencies unprotected, police aren’t supposed to carry guns, and so on. These are quintessentially British norms, and we sure as hell aren’t ready to let them go. We look cross the Atlantic and know how precious they are. Jo Cox reminds us what happens without them.
History is sort of my thing, so I tend to see cycles at work when developments of importance occur. At the same time, I try to be careful. I believe the patterns you might discern depend quite a lot on the periodicity of the cycle you select for observation. The longer the arc, and the broader the context, the more data points you have from which to draw valid conclusions. Each event may seem incidental or trivial in itself, since the backdrop is so large. However, a broader arc allows individual events to be considered and understood as either a part, or not, of an historic trend. What matters to the historian is the broad sweep and its consequences, not incidental brush strokes.
In contrast, the shorter the period selected for observation, the more potentially momentous an individual event may seem, even if it isn’t really all that important in any meaningful way.
It is for this reason that people tend to think of theirs as “the” all-important, epoch-defining moment. They almost always flatter themselves. Usually this is born of ignorance: a failure to appreciate that what they think they are experiencing is not, actually, new. Or special. Or portentous. Or catastrophic. They almost never have remotely the correct perspective. And they never can seem to get over themselves.
This explains the endless cavalcade of millenialists, doomsayers, fear-mongerers, supremacists, homophobes and other extremists who must convince themselves of their special insights in order to rationalise the awful things they tend to believe or, worse, do. It also explains demagogues, who tend to be revealed as highly intelligent but unstable narcissists: they thrive by cynically exploiting people’s lack of perspective and fear. Any resemblance at this point to Donald Trump is purely coincidental.
To see the debate in Britain descend to U.S. levels of intolerance and fearmongering is, to say the least, dispiriting. But I also detect in the polity - on both sides of the debate - that other quintessential British characteristic: rejection of and resistance to stupidity. I am reminded of the good Major (Graham Chapman) in the old Monty Python days whose main purpose was to interrupt skits and put an end to them for once and for all on the basis that they had exceeded tolerable silliness. When a Brit says, “that’s just silly”, that’s the end of it. You’re done.
In the end, Britain is pragmatic and pragmatism tends to prevail. Yes, of course I voted to remain. I live in London and know that Brexit would be shitty for the city I love, silly city that it is.
More important than the prospects for London, however, is that broad arc I mentioned earlier. I have dealt with Brussels, and Paris, more than I’d care to admit. I’ve sat through harangues by Brussels bureaucrats and suffered through attacks on “anglo-saxon capitalism”. Brussels promulgates much silliness. But I also know where Europe has come from. I know it has an unfortunate tendency to tear itself apart, and I know it is weaker divided.
As for the migration issue, I know that Germany has throughout its history absorbed far higher numbers as a proportion of its total population, and has emerged the stronger for it. I also know that the ongoing tragedy in the Middle East that has impelled the refugee crisis is what must be tackled. Turning them away at the borders by itself solves nothing. And to think that the UK buys security through Brexit is laughably naive.
I realise that I may have heaped contempt on the fears of a beleaguered – and diminishing - middle class. Our children’s prospects are not what ours were when we were their age. There are real problems faced by struggling people, and there are real problems faced by the planet which is our home. Demographics, environmental degradation and warming temperatures, and shifting economic and geopolitical trends present huge challenges. We don’t have a prayer of succeeding in doing what needs to be done to tackle any of them if we continue to fulminate about Mexicans or Syrians or whether Hillary murdered Vince Foster (yes, the email server is a problem - a serious problem: I’m sorry but there are much bigger fish to fry). Blaming Obama, or Bush or Bill Clinton for the state of America’s fiscal or trade imbalances, the widening income gap or the paucity of decent employment ignores the reality of overwhelming global trends. If you think that starting trade wars or stopping immigration (illegal or otherwise) will make any difference, well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but such efforts always make things worse. History – the long arc – can be harsh, but it is never wrong. Demagogues have proven time and time again their willingness to delude the masses into believing there is an easy answer in the form of a silver bullet, but in the end the gun is always pointed at them.
My fear is that the silliness – particularly in America – will prove impossible to overcome in order to get on with addressing real problems. One cyclical tendency hangs over us like a Sword of Damocles: political elites become paralysed in their dysfunction as the people sleepwalk toward catastrophe. That catastrophe will be a major war, environmental collapse, disease or similar event. Given the crowded conditions we live in today, such events (logically) would seem likely to be very impactful if any of them were to occur.
We can choose to be grownups, to act responsibly, if we want to, if we really care about the children. Responsible people know there are no easy answers, progress occurs incrementally, every solution has a price and there is no free lunch. Responsible people also know that, at the same time, change without compassion is self-defeating, and that at some level we are all bound together in common purpose, whatever our differences. Jo Cox was exactly right on this: it’s why she was killed and it’s why she would insist that we carry on.
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