Today 10 years ago was the UK's big morning after... The morning after the referendum, with the dizzying realization that Brexit would indeed become a bitter reality, though no one fully knew at the time just what a shit show it would turn into, bringing out the worst in UK politics, revealing a deep national (though mostly English) insular psyche which still refuses to grasp its post-empire status and feeds on false nostalgia of an imagined past. What followed has been, in part, a not-so-slow mask-off moment/period, a self-imposed descent into a political pit, still struggling to find its bottom, even a decade later...

It also was the last day of a coding workshop I ran with a group of 10 people in our kitchen in Muswell Hill. Everyone was gobsmacked, full of disbelief that it actually happened, including the two people who had voted Leave "to send a message", not actually believing it would make a difference. The result and barrage of news reports and immediate implications was the sole topic we could talk about in our breaks. I and other immigrant workshop members started worrying in earnest about our families' future in a country/culture, which would soon turn on us and to which I'd already given 18 years of my life back then, where my kids were born in and which I considered my family's home.

Within hours, the pound dropped to its lowest level since 1985. News emerged that Vote Leave insider traders shorted the country's currency and made hundreds of millions overnight. Cameron resigned, initially having called the referendum to ward off rightwing challengers, confident the referendum would cement his power, now was washing his hands clean of any responsibility, and firing the opening salvo for the ongoing downward spiral of UK politics with 5½ prime ministers since (somehow each one worse than their predecessor), intensifying nationalism, erosion/perversion of basic civil & human rights, rising pollution, inequality, hostility towards immigrants...

Immediately after the result announcement and resignation, politicians who'd actively campaigned for Remain previously, now were loudly voicing support for the absolute harshest form of "Brexit means Brexit": Total severance. UK pensioners who had retired to more comfortable lives in France & Spain (many of whom still voted Leave), started realizing they've just signed away their own rights & future. People with any Irish/EU ancestry rushing to apply for dual-nationality and new passports. "Go home" & "vermin" graffiti appearing all over the country, racial hate crimes rising sharply. Taking back Britain. Neighbors first "politely" inquiring when (not if) we would consider "moving back home" or feigning surprise "oh, you're still here?!"...

That June morning was the first major blow of the year, followed by a second one just four months later in early November. The feeling of shock and the conversations at work the morning after the US election like a Deja-vu. Long faces, long silences, colleagues in tears and disbelief. My own plans to migrate to the US put on hold. In the evening I was watching from my 9th floor hotel room window the Portland riot exploding on the streets directly below. Flash bangs & tear gas going off, people getting arrested and badly hurt...

Politics follows people. And it's exactly this what's scaring me the most. How can we hope to build a brighter, peaceful, livable future if 30-40% of people are actively wanting it darker... Not just in the UK or US, a large enough percentage of the populace everywhere is voting for the same kind of disastrous, damaging (and damaged) people, for more hostility, inequality, corruption, not just once, but repeatedly, out of spite, egoism or other harmful purpose...

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmHymgM7Y

(Even though I know this song was deeply personal and related to Leonard's own nearing end, I always found it to be the perfect soundtrack for 2016, the year of its release and for Brexit as harbinger of Weltschmerz growing over the past decade...)

#Brexit #Anniversary