BREXIT Points Of View
Few people ever think of the differences in culture between themselves and those in other wealth brackets. It is always assumed that others lead essentially the same life, just with finer or poorer trappings associated with it. The extremely wealthy cannot visualize the relative expense of basics such as food to someone on a subsistence-level income and the poor view the rich as having more disposable income without any additional operating expenses, social obligations or risks.
-Michael Z. Williamson, Freehold
A week or so ago, a guy I know on Facebook posted a photo of a household that, through putting up a Pro-BREXIT sign, had made its political afflictions strikingly clear. This was followed by a considerable amount of vitriol directed at Leave voters, a tiny fragment of the vitriol directed at them over the years since the referendum was held. I pointed out, rather waspishly, that the poster might know nothing about the people who lived in that house, let alone why they might feel the way they do, and – in any case – talking to people as if they’re idiots is not a good way to convince them to join you. People resent that sort of treatment, you know?
In any case, it led to an interesting discussion.
It’s quite easy, these days, to get caught in an information bubble, where all your news comes from sources with the same or similar political views. If you live inside such a bubble – and you may not even be aware of it – it’s easy to start thinking that you’re right and everyone who disagrees is either ignorant or wilfully wrong (i.e. they know the truth, but deny it because they’re evil or stupid that way.) This tends to manifest on both sides of the political divide, but it seems to be worse for the Left because the Left has a near-complete stranglehold on mainstream media, social media and so on. People caught in a bubble can say, with all sincerity, “I don’t know how Trump won, I don’t know anyone who voted for him” without ever realising that there was a whole country of people who didn’t agree with their view of the world.
But if you want to be a writer, you cannot live in a bubble. You have to teach yourself to see the world through other sets of eyes, even if – perhaps especially – you don’t agree with them. You have to understand their thoughts and feelings, you have to understand the options open to them, if you want to create three-dimensional characters. Indeed, most of the ‘inexplicable’ decisions of human history become quite explicable if you look at matters through their point of view.
I’m not saying that you have to agree with them. But you do have to understand them.
For example, a teenage boy without much cash in his pocket might have the bright idea of inviting the girl he fancies for a walk in the park, which will let them spend time together without putting too much of a strain on his wallet. This is quite understandable from his point of view. But it is also understandable that the girl will say no, because – from her point of view – he’s trying to get her alone. He may have good motives. He does have good motives. But why should she take it on faith?
The Remain activists insist that there are no valid (in the sense that they can be argued reasonably) reasons for leaving the EU. And, from their point of view, they’re right. But, from a Leaver point of view, there are good reasons to Vote Leave.
If you happen to have any historical awareness, you might feel that the EU is a vast unaccountable, undemocratic bureaucratic state that will ride roughshod over the people in order to enact its version of European union. Worse, it’s unwilling and/or unable to reform itself. Given time, the inherent flaws in such a structure will destroy it (in the same manner the USSR collapsed.) In short, it might be better – from their point of view – to get out and/or defuse the ticking time bomb before it explodes.
Historically speaking, attempts to unite Europe have always failed. Europe is not the United States of America. It is a continent composed of a number of different countries, each one having its own cultures, factions and historical scars. Britain was never occupied by Hitler, but the French were occupied and the Germans were the Nazis. And, to the East, Poland and the remainder of Eastern Europe traded Nazi Occupation for Soviet (i.e. Russian) Domination. It has already proved difficult, to say the least, to get all those factions moving in the same direction. Multiethnic empires have never fared well.
If you happen to have any economic awareness, you might feel that the EU made the dreadful mistake of allowing the PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) to join the Euro without doing anything resembling due diligence first. Put crudely, they gave a set of spendthrifts an unlimited credit card and allowed them to spend recklessly until the bill finally came due. If a teenager has a credit card and spends madly, who is to blame? The teenager? The indulgent parents? Or both? The EU’s response to this crisis has, in many ways, made matters worse. A tightly-controlled economy is asking for trouble.
If you happen to be a low-wage worker, you might feel that free movement (and immigration in general) is a serious threat to your livelihood.
This probably requires some elaboration. If you’re a doctor, you probably don’t have any reason to fear foreign competition. You might welcome immigration. But, if you’re on the other end of the scale – no real qualifications, no realistic hope of getting them, trapped in zero-hour contracts, you regard foreigners as competition, people competing for scarce jobs and houses and suchlike … when you’re permanently on the edge, painfully aware that losing your job could be the end of the world. Why on Earth would you welcome people who might take your jobs? ‘British jobs for British workers’ makes a lot of sense if you’re afraid of losing your job and/or being unable to get one because of foreign competition.
Someone who read my original post pointed out that zero-hour contracts are a British problem, not something mandated by the EU. This is, as far as I know, true. But they intersect with EU-related issues, such as free movement, to make life harder for the working poor. Wages are governed, like so much else, by the law of supply and demand. If the supply goes up, and demand remains roughly stable, wages go down. From this point of view, the EU makes things worse for British workers.
And, if you happen to believe in democracy, you might feel that the results of the Referendum – as unfortunate as you may feel them to be – should be honoured. Throwing a tantrum because you didn’t get your way is childish, hardly the sort of act that makes people want to respect you (let alone trust you with power.) You might also note that the EU, far from grasping the nettle and working to come to a deal that won’t be too bad for either side, has been recklessly implacable. ‘No Deal’ looks likely because the EU has been stubborn at the worst possible time.
Think about it. Britain and Europe are connected in hundreds of ways, some obvious and some not. Britain crashing out of the EU will do a lot of damage to both sides. It is beyond belief that anyone with an eye to the future could just let things slide, on the faint hope of Parliament somehow cancelling BREXIT. For example, when the French deployed troops to fight insurgents in Mali, Britain provided logistical support. What happens when the French need our help next time and we are unable or unwilling to provide?
Now, you may not find any of the four arguments above to be convincing. I’m not expecting to change any minds. They are, however, valid arguments. They are not ‘Angela Merkel is secretly Hitler’ or ‘The EU is run by vampires’ or anything that can easily be dismissed without much effort. It does a grave disservice to the cause of democracy to dismiss people when they have valid arguments … and if you refuse to even consider them, why should they consider yours?
The difference in viewpoint – and lived experience – between Leave and Remain is staggering. To put this in some context, I know a Remain voter who went abroad on school trips and spent her gap year in France. I, on the other hand, had precisely zero prospect of going abroad while I was at school and never took a gap year. Her world was much larger than mine, which was, in turn, far larger than someone who lived in the poorest regions of the country. I watched a documentary about Britons working in Spain who complained, bitterly, that they’d been betrayed. But, if you think about it, the popular perception of Britons living in Spain is of rich expats, criminals, or both. The fact this isn’t true doesn’t matter. All that matters is that people believe it.
If you want to understand (most) of the people who voted for BREXIT (or Trump), understand this. The benefits of social progress, technological development, immigration and globalisation have NOT been spread evenly. The people who benefited had no reason to rock the boat. The people who lost out, or saw themselves as losing out, had every reason to want to reshuffle the deck. And successive generations of politicians ignored this until it was too late. In doing so, they created hordes of dissatisfied voters who threw their support to populists who promised to take their concerns seriously.
And, from their point of view, this is the right thing to do.
They might be wrong. But treating them as if they’re idiots will not convince them to consider your point of view.
