2024-06-17 10:24:00 +07:00 by Mark Smith
It occurred to me a while back that I hadn't written anything, apart from a few links on the linkblog, about how I view and think about Brexit. It's such a big subject, and for me it crosses very close to my roots since, although I am from the UK, I grew up mostly in europe outside the UK. I feel like I should have very well formed thoughts about the whole debacle at this stage, but the truth is that I don't. I'm still confused by it.
I'm also in a permanent situation where it's almost impossible to have enough piece and quiet to gather my thoughts on this complex topic, and write something meaningful. So bare that in mind. What follows is just a few notes I wrote down in between tsunamis, spiritual storms, and general crazy world shit that surrounds me 24/7 at the minute. Maybe I'll refine it over time. Even as I write this I'm being dogged by a couple of softly softly murmurers. It never ends.
I’ve always been pro-Europe. It would be difficult for me not to be. I grew up mostly in Europe. I went to a European School for heck's sake. So I’m kind of biased. Europe is a great place. I really liked living there. Having said that, the way you see things as a kid and the way things are in reality can be quite different. At some point after university, which was in the UK, I became aware that many UK people weren't so into the hole EU project.
I knew this before, of course, through watching the news, but there's something very different about being in a place, immersed among it's people that's very different from absorbing information through the tele. You get a much more real sense for the general zietgiest. I became aware that much of the politics and government in the EU was organised in a very beurocratic and possibly non-democratic way. Certainly in a way that was at odds with how things are done in the UK. I started to understand why many in the UK didn’t like being part of the EU.
I was abroad when the vote happened. I think I was in Thailand at the time. I watched some of the build up, and the results, but I didn't vote. I think probably if I were back home, I’d have voted to remain, but I decided before the vote happened, that I'd be okay with whatever result was reached, as long as the election was a true representation of the view from the people of the UK.
I’m ultimately British and would stand behind whatever the nation wanted. If there are big reasons to not be in the EU, and many have these views, I trust that the people have good vision and know at an instinctive level what is right for the country. They might very well be able to see something that I simply couldn't. There's no sense trying to smash a square peg into a round hole, these differing views ultimately have to be resolved in some way, and maybe leaving would be the best way to do that. That was basically my high level thought process when the vote hapenned.
Perhaps we will rejoin some day or maybe we won’t. Things change, people change, nations change, the european project will change, let’s see where this goes. I'm not going to turn my back on either side, even if it feels like the world does that sometimes, even if it often feels like it's the world's favorite thing. As a side note, it is kind of cool to know that leaving is possible. That in itself might be the greatest take away for everyone.
I think ultimately whatever happens both the EU and the UK will be better off for it.
Hopefully I'll have more time in the future to write something less clumsy about this, when I'm not being pressured by a world on the warpath. I just wanted to get something out there, with the EU elections that just happened, and with the UK elections on the horizon, I've been much more interested in both than I'd expected, so now felt like a good time.