[John Riley]

The point is they voted to leave the EU. The entire effort is an attempted rejection of the wider Europe, prompted primarily by immigration. It's a giant reaction doomed to failure. It's an attempt to go back in time. I live in the southern part of the U.S. and this impulse has twisted much of the South into a weird costume of itself. Now it's spread this small-mindedness throughout the country and apparently a similar impulse has gripped GB. The fact it was voted for is the tragedy.

[Max Goodman]

Originally Posted by David Anthony

They voted the same way in the last EU election but by a bigger majority.
Then they voted the same way in the 2019 general election.

True. And the reporting I've seen suggests that many of those who switched their votes to supporting Brexit did so with the idea that the results of the initial vote should be honored. That slim victory appears to have been decisive.

[Jim Moonan]

x

David: "So, last gasp of a failed empire, or first hope of a forward-thinking nation?"


Neither?

Globally, it could reflect that "look back" that always accompanies an important step forward. A kind of buyer's remorse that forces one to retreat from their convictions. A momentary lapse of collective courage on the part of a culture to recognize its own evolution into the future. A convulsion.
x
x

[Julie Steiner]

A wee digression:

The trouble with empires is that they are inherently based on the notion that might is right.

And that conquering and oppressing other people is a fine and virtuous thing, which every "great" civilization does.

And that the "superiority" of creating and/or sustaining dramatic inequality in the world is therefore something admirable.

I'll never understand why the large-scale thuggery and tyranny of the past is often presented as something for which today's more inclusive democracies should be nostalgic.

I say this as someone whose first name honors a dictator who overthrew a republic.

[David Anthony]

Indeed, Julia.
And my ancestor, Mark Antony, did his best to support you.

[James Brancheau]

I view Trump and Brexit as in the same ballpark. Putin has been one of the most effective authoritarian leaders in history.

[Allen Tice]

Oh Julie, there were about XVI (sixteen, heh heh) or more Julius Caesars active in Rome about the time of the famousest one. He was Gaius. The others whose names have survived had different third names, or at least most of them did. I have a chart somewhere. I’m sure you are named after one whose other name was Swifty or Thoughty or Careful.

[James Brancheau]

I'm sorry, Julie, everytime I think of that I laugh. Of course destined to be withdrawn. Ha. Carry on.

[Julie Steiner]

No worries, James. This site is run by an Alexander.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back to Brexit--I enjoyed this literary discussion four years ago:


Bill Maher tweeted:

Final #Brexit tally is in: 48% Sense and Sensibility, 52% Pride and Prejudice.

3:40 PM · Jun 24, 2016


Basima Faysal tweeted back:

What the Dickens??

Final #Brexit tally is in: 48% Bleak House, 52% Great Expectations.

@billmaher
5:49 PM · Jun 24, 2016

[James Brancheau]

Thanks for that, Julie, ha. Bill's is funnier, but I'm biased.