Friday, June 24, 2016

Brexit and the Culture Wars

In a stunning rebuke to Prime Minister David Cameron and their ruling classes the British voted yesterday to keep Britain British. They walked out of the European Union… the better to defend their borders from alien invaders.

Tony Blair was distressed. So was Lindsay Lohan. Clearly, it will mean a major disruption. Yet, the British people knew that it would be painful. They voted for Brexit anyway.

The markets are already in turmoil around the world. And yet, the voters were choosing between bad and worse. They were tired of being ruled by bureaucrats in Belgium. They were tired of having an endless stream of regulations imposed on them by people in foreign nations.

And yet, in the end, it came down to the issue of immigration. The British people wanted to reclaim their nation. They wanted their nation to be their nation. They did not want it to turn into Germany. They wanted the hordes of immigrants camped out in Calais to stay in Calais. They had had had enough with British girls being “groomed” by Muslim men.

They knew that they were risking opprobrium for failing to appreciate the contributions made by Eastern Europeans.

So, they were willing to pay the price, to make the sacrifice, in order to close their borders. The British people have made sacrifices before. They have suffered to defend their nation. The cost did not scare them off.

It isn’t just about the Muslim hordes, but a great deal of it is. Everyone has been following, with chagrin, the Muslim invasion of Europe. Everyone has become on edge about terrorism and about predatory behavior by Muslim men, especially against European women. Sweden and Norway have become rape capitals, with the feckless authorities doing no better than to tell women not to go out at night and not to dress provocatively. Said authorities are, of course, feminists. Who is promoting rape culture?

It was one thing to suggest free movement of peoples across the borders of European countries. Churchill himself had recommended it. And yet, opening your nations to a flood of non-European immigrants because another European nation has chosen to do so takes it one step too far. If you allow it to happen your culture will no longer be English. In place of the Common Law you will have Sharia Law.

And besides, when you have a continent so clearly divided into rich and poor, the rich nations will find themselves on the hook for the failures of the poorer nations. First, their welfare rolls will be overrun by immigrants from poorer nations in the EU. Second, their banking system will be threatened by defaults by the Greeks or the Italians. It’s one thing to pay for your own irresponsible behavior. Why should you pay for the bad behavior of others?

In exiting the European Union the British have put an end to a grand multinational and multicultural experiment. Before the idea entered the empty head of Barack Obama, Europeans were trying to join together in a union that would supersede national identity and make everyone a citizen of Europe. Again, this is not the same as open borders. It supersedes free trade. It imposes a new culture and a new identity.

When the European Union was formed, it was a step toward freer trade and economic progress. It was a blow against mercantilism. And, it was also a way to compete with the United States, and with the almighty dollar, in the world markets.

And yet, it cost people their identities as British or French or Italian citizens. And it gave power to bureaucrats who wanted to impose their will on the continent. They did so through endless rounds of regulations, roughly as the Obama administration and its bureaucrats have done over here.

I suspect that Brexit was also a rebellion against the newly feminized Europe. Whether through Mama Merkel in Germany or the feminists running Scandinavia, the European Union had become weak and effeminate. 

One no longer has the right to say such thing, but Britain has just declared itself to be a bastion of manliness in the face of a rise tide of girl power. Since girl power, in Germany and Scandinavia has meant opening the nation to hordes of invaders… the British, once again, have stood strong against a tide of madness coming from Germany.

Like it or not, Brexit was a stinging defeat for feminism. It was a stinging defeat, not for world trade and capitalism, but for bureaucrats who impose their will on their peoples. It was a defeat for idealism and a victory for British empiricism and pragmatism.

It was not about the economics as much as it was about the culture wars. Britain saw Europe caving in to an alien culture and it decided to do what was necessary to defend itself.

13 comments:

Ares Olympus said...

The 51.9%-48.1% vote at least shows the UK is very divided.

I don't know if the majority of "leave" voters did it for reasons of Muslim immigrants. If it is a race war, at least we know one Britain citizen who was willing to kill to protect the whiteness of the UK, and was a Holocaust denier as well. The ability to stab and kill one white woman to save other white women is a thankless task, but someone has to do it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jo_Cox#Suspect

Interestingly 62% Scotland and 56% Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU. As well as 60% of London voted to stay.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36616028

So now we can expect a new independence vote for Scotland, and perhaps they can try to rejoin the EU? But you have to think the most important problem of any nation leaving the EU is that it will make others nations consider as well.

Myself, I can feel the secessionist impulse, but it would be more on economic grounds. When globalization's diminishing return hit, and easy investment returns dry up, and everything becomes a speculation bubble, which is where we are now. So isolationism and protectionism (whether on movement of labor or goods), make for a poorer nation in the short run, but a chance to be stronger in the long run when other nations follow your lead later when chaos causes it anyway.

But it is strange that London is pretty much like New York, and as international as you can get. Perhaps this will lead to a crash in London property markets? A necessary crash as well, but something very painful to everyone suddenly with underwater mortgages. You have to imagine huge bail outs in the near future, and a fall in the British Pound in international market.

It may be good in the long run, especially if total debt in the system is decreased, but you can't expect that.

Marsh said...

Yes, Ares, Britian is divided between actual British people and invaders, traitors, the sell outs and the Scotts.

The true British people are making Britian Great Again. America's next!!!!

Ares Olympus said...

Marsh, how about a spelling lesson to go with your ignorance?

Think Bri-TAIN, rather than Bri-TI-AN. And Scots only has one t.

I know, I wish blogger allowed edits to comments after posting too.

Marsh said...

LOL yeah, I only proofread after I hit post.

I may be a poor speller, but the content of my post was dead on.


Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

That's a pathetic response, Ares, given your track record with your comments here, where you have provided voluminous demonstrations of not only your own ignorance, but also your unique flavor of stupidity. And your mastery of the 3Rs has never been stellar, either. Get back to wring your own blog, and spare us. Make yourself great again!

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

The quote of the Day: A comment from Lord Christopher Monckton in response to Great Britain pulling out of the EU.

He said President Obama weighing in on the vote was the final straw that drove voters into the arms of the leave movement.

Britains have President Obama to thank for finally freeing Britain from the ghastly Socialist dictatorship that exists in Brussels.

Marsh said...

Finally. Something positive resulted from Obama's arrogant mouth. What a fun day to watch the news! So many long unhappy faces on the left. More of that to come in November!

Make America Great Again!

Marsh said...

LOL " Make yourself great again"

Was he ever great?

Ares Olympus said...

I was curious what British Economic Historian Niall Ferguson would say about Brexit, sensing the possibility of mixed feelings, and I was right, here comparing before the vote to divorce, and I accept his concerns are wise.

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/divorcing-europe/
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...Now, I get how you feel. You’ve reached the point when you just can’t stand the EU any more. You can’t stand the nagging (regulation). You can’t stand the way the EU keeps inviting her friends round (immigration). You can’t stand the way she takes your money (that net contribution). So enough is enough. You want out.

At this stage, most people contemplating divorce are motivated by two things. First, they see only their spouse’s defects. Secondly, they fantasize about an idealized alternative future. Often, though not always, this involves a magically perfect new partner. But the most important motivation is the dream of freedom. No more nagging! No more unwelcome guests! All that money saved!

This is the Brexit state of mind. To the committed Leave voter, the European Union has no virtues, only vices. For some Brexiteers there is also an adorable, in-every-way-perfect girlfriend called ‘the Anglosphere,’ a combination of all that is cute about Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

...Yet this is not just about time and money. For divorce has other unintended consequences. Yes, you’re fixated on all that is wrong with your spouse. But other people are inevitably involved in any divorce: children mainly, but also parents, siblings and friends. It’s the same with this referendum. If England votes Leave but Scotland votes Remain, you surely know happens next – to say nothing of Northern Ireland and Wales. I have friends whose kids didn’t speak to them for years after their divorce. A decree nisi can turn your family into Yugoslavia. How amicable would the breakup of Britain be?

The lesson I have learned in the nearly eight years since I and my first wife separated is that divorce is one of the toughest things you can do in peacetime. And the one thing you can never divorce are the problems that turn out to be all your own – the inner demons that you wrongly blamed on your ex.

Today there are a great many Brexiteers who would love to pin all the UK’s problems on the EU. Trust me: most of those problems will still be there after Brexit, along with a heap of nasty new ones. And you’ll have no one left to blame but yourself.
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Fantasy island has begun and will end quickly as everyone start to discover what has been kept hidden behind polite conversation. I don't think "political correctness" is what silences conversations as much a self-interest that desperately wants to know the price of open dissent before engaging in it.

And on the EU side, we have the rejected spouse is ready to let UK go, and has its own reasons to try to speed the process faster than most would like.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/europe-plunged-crisis-britain-votes-leave-eu-european-union
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The EU’s top leaders have said they expect the UK to act on its momentous vote to leave the union “as soon as possible, however painful that process may be” and that there will be “no renegotiation”.

While the UK – the first sovereign country to vote to leave – would remain a member until exit negotiations were concluded, they said, Europe expected it to “give effect to this decision ... as soon as possible” by triggering article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, which is effectively Britain’s formal letter of resignation.

The special settlement negotiated by David Cameron earlier this year was void and could not be renegotiated, they said.
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Two years in divorce court while living in the same house as someone who doesn't want you there is a tough process to wish for.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-referendum-leave-article-50-lisbon-treaty-a7100436.html

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

Ares Olympus @June 24, 2016 at 11:11 AM:

"I accept his concerns are wise..."

Thank God. We'll pass along to Niall Ferguson that Ares Olympus thinks his thoughts are wise. No doubt this approbation will provide him the consolation and fortitude to keep on writing another day.

Ares Olympus said...

IAC, the fun thing about Ferguson's public warnings is it failed and Brexit will go forward, and now he can find out how well his analogy fits reality.

And since he lives in America now, he doesn't have to personally worry either way, or at least not until the success of Brexit plus Hillary's inability to speak against illegal immigration sends Trump into the White House.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/25/opinions/clinton-illegal-immigration-froma-harrop

Glory said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.