Brexit: igniting evolution

Jul
8
2016
by
thayne
/
0
Comments

I live in the UK, but as it happened, I was in America the day of the Brexit vote and the US press reacted as though Britain had taken leave not just of Europe, but of its collective senses.

Fox News gave us the moment by moment collapse of the British pound against the US dollar and the crash of the FTSE 500 and other markets.

You must be crazy, most of my American friends said. Why would Britain vote to leave a great trading bloc?

Laws from south of the border
For all my American friends who aren’t aware of the political component of the EU, consider the following. Suppose you have a trading agreement with all of South and Central America. Then it transpires that as a condition of membership you now have to accept that Mexico will create a commission of unelected people who will frame up to 60 per cent of your laws, and not just those relating to trade.

 

 

I live in the UK, but as it happened, I was in America the day of the Brexit vote and the US press reacted as though Britain had taken leave not just of Europe, but of its collective senses.

Fox News gave us the moment by moment collapse of the British pound against the US dollar and the crash of the FTSE 500 and other markets.

You must be crazy, most of my American friends said. Why would Britain vote to leave a great trading bloc?

Laws from south of the border
For all my American friends who aren’t aware of the political component of the EU, consider the following. Suppose you have a trading agreement with all of South and Central America. Then it transpires that as a condition of membership you now have to accept that Mexico will create a commission of unelected people who will frame up to 60 per cent of your laws, and not just those relating to trade.

Although all the countries that are part of the trading bloc can vote on them, the US will only have 1/28th say as to whether to agree to them or not.

Now imagine that this bloc creates a ‘Central American’ court whose laws take supremacy over US courts.

Suppose this organization also insists that US borders must be open to any Central or South American who chooses to live in the US, there is no quota system in place and America cannot easily deport foreign criminals back to their own countries.

Also imagine that this new trading bloc decides to adopt a common currency – let’s call it the ‘Americo’ – but as a result many South and Central American countries end up with broken economies, unemployment of 50-90 per cent, and economic policies now dictated by Mexico, which will now create severe austerity measures to ensure that the countries handle their finances better. And suppose underlying all this idyllic ‘unity’ is boiling resentment among the populations of individual countries.

Given all that, how would you vote, if you were given a choice of whether to leave or stay?

Instrument of change
The UK is presently deeply divided, rudderless and frightened. Many Remainers refuse to accept the vote, grieving over the idea of a lost ideal of unity. Most of the Leavers resent that the Remain camp believe their vote was entirely fueled by racism. And for these two weeks, much of Britain’s government has been busy resigning, backstabbing their own party members, or simply wringing their hands over some of the economic fallout, waiting for someone – anybody else – to take charge.

By strange, timely coincidence, immediately following the Brexit vote I was attending a retreat in the high desert of northern New Mexico with a group I belong to called the Evolutionary Leaders.

For me, it is essential to view the Brexit vote through the lens of history. These kinds of sudden disruptions – what Jean Houston calls ‘Jump Times’ – occur throughout time when it becomes necessary for the old order to break down.

They are never a smooth ride, but always abrupt, like two tectonic plates that suddenly collide and trigger an earthquake.

Seen in this way, Brexit is a necessary and important development, an inciting instrument of evolutionary change.

This is the first major political disruption in the West in modern times against an old and flawed order. For the European Union, however noble an ideal, isn’t working for most of the people most of the time.

If you look beneath the surface of this noble ideal – of ‘unity’ and ‘open borders’ and common currency – you’ll find a raft of unrest in virtually every Western European country – Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, of course - particularly those in southern Europe, with their shaky economies.

Tired of the difficult reality of a continent without borders, at least five countries in the EU are pushing for some sort of quota system on immigration, and a batch of others want to vote on their own Brexit – not because they don’t want to be part of Europe, but because they hate the current and highly corrupt system.

The EU was supposed to heal the wounds of World Wars I and II, and it was of course an incredible achievement that Eastern European countries who were our enemies now peacefully do business with us.

However, many Southern European countries resent Germany for dictating their economic policies, and many Germans naturally feel resentment that they are having to pick up the tab for these broken economies. Instead of bringing the continent together, the EU is tearing it apart.

It’s not the prospect of a united Europe that people voted against. It’s the deeply unfair and undemocratic way it which it was organized. And that order of course can change, as it has throughout history, to preserve what should be preserved, and reform that which is not working.

It’s essential now that each side of the UK accept the vote, work to heal the divisions caused by this referendum, and elect leadership that will inspire and unite the country in a positive way.

Once we achieve that, in my view, Britain will be able to take a strong position in Europe – and the West - as a leading light for major political evolution throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

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thayne

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