Brexit: "Straight as she goes, Mr. Baines"

 

Brexit: "Straight as she goes, Mr. Baines"

Brexiting. A series on being English. # 08

Today, 25 of June, 2018, Bloomberg  reports that European businesses have begun to anticipate a hard Brexit. The headline reads "EU Businesses Cut U.K. Ties on Brexit and Want Britain Punished". 

In my early posts on Brexit, nrs. 2, 4 and 7, I predicted the English would not give in to "them Contintentals". That was a year ago. As it stands, the prospects of a 'hard Brexit', i.e. without a negotiated exit deal, are higher than ever. It is not a negotiation tactic, it is English (not British) mentality. As predicted, a large part
of the English consider themselves superior to any other nation or population. This hails not only back from the 18th century when they invented the Industrial Revolution, or the 19th and early 20th century, when they controlled one quarter of the world's population and land mass. One should also take into consideration the life and station of the ruling class in England. From birth, they are educated in the notion that they are the chosen ones with a sincere stress on their responsibility, not to the world but to themselves and England. It is called "to play up". And they learn to play up from the vantage point of a superior alien race looking down upon the pitiful people 'down there' who have to work for a living, or, even worse, do not live in England. Look at the Bullington Club in Oxford and other student societies at Oxford University and it becomes immediately clear that 'to belong' is the ticket to success which of course excludes all others. Try to find a prime minister of England or Great Britain who has not been educated at Oxford and who has not been a member of some ancient student society where the superiority of their own members over others is not instilled. You will search long but in vain.

So now, for good or for bad, the ship has sailed under the motto "Straight as she goeas, Mr. Baines" as in the famous television series The Onedin Line where Mr. Baines would compare to Theresa May.

The error made by many European CEO's and politicians is that they thought Brexit was an accident in the vote, but it was not. Even politicians who ostensibly were opposed to Brexit, have revealed themselves as proponents of Brexit, which strengthened the hand of the English negotiators and, eventually, made it clear that the English did not want to negotiate at all, at least not really. The English were negotiating for damage control, not to remain good neighbours.  The English have occupied Scotland for centuries now and the Scots still don't like it. The negotiations in Brussels for Brexit are not really for Brexit but for Enxit, the Scots desperately want to remain with the EU. Unfortunately, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are English, not Scottish.

The deep urge for an English exti from the EU after 50 years of vexing exceptionalism, is a consequence of the upbringing of the ruling classes. It is not well understood in  Europe. For instance, when KLM's CEO, Leo van Wijk, wanted to ally KLM to British Airways, he was played like a puppet. Leo approached the BA board on the basis of equality and with sound arguments. "We are all in the same boat, in the same European Union."  The board of BA laughed themselves silly about so much naivete. 

Now, the English are not the only ones that form a population which considers its culture superior to the rest of the world.
Here is a short list.
1. The English. (Their society in general.)
2. The Americans. (Their society in general.)
3. The French. (Their cultural elements of art, literature, fashion, philosophy.)
4. The Japanese. (A feeling of total self-sufficiency and collectivity.)
5. The Chinese. (The most resilient society on the planet, also the oldest civilisation that is still going strong.)

The Americans and English share roots and language and a similar feeling of superiority. They may huddle together at some time in the future.
The French have conceded defeat in economic and political power but keep insisting their thinking and arts are superior.
The Japanese are like from a different planet. They do not think themselves as superior in the way that the English and Americans do. They are not taught that they are better, not at all. To them it is so obvious, it need not be taught.
The Chinese have always been apprehensive of other civilisations and cultures and rightly so. They have been invaded and exploited by the Mongols, the Manchu, the Japanese and the Europeans for five centuries but none of the conquerers has made a dent in their culture. When the Manchus were gone, in 1912, after 300 years of rule, the first thing the Chinese did was to cut off their pig tails which had been a mandatory sign of submission to the Manchus and had been considered typically Chinese by Europeans, showing their total disinterest in and misunderstanding of Chinese culture. Even communism has not made a dent. The way China is ruled now is not different from how it has been ruled for the last 5.000 years. The purges and anti-corruption campaigns of Xi would be unthinkable in really communistic countries like the USSR and Cuba. The latter purged people for not obeying the dictators Stalin and Castro. China purges people who have not been good for the country. That is a huge difference which is not well understood in Europe and America.

So, Brexit is a natural phenomenon. As a matter of fact, the 'Anschluss' of Great Britain with the European Union, in 1969, was only accepted under the presumption that the superior English mind would be able to dominate the people in Brussels and dictate, more or less, the policies of the EU. When realities set in and it became obvious that the Oxford clique was not able to rule over Europe like they had anticipated, the English started to demand special treatment. Countless exceptions and considerations had to be made for the English, which led to great irritation with all of the other European states. Really, it would have been better for everyone, especially the EU, if the UK had never joined the EU. The EU would have been able to evolve itself into something with a character and power of its own. From 1969 - 2019, the EU was stuck because of the English exceptionalism (not the Scots, Irish, Welsh, just the English). Just like the English had underestimated the power of reason of the continentals, so had those very continentals overestimated the reasonability of the English. It was a mismatch from the start.

25 June 2018; 07:44. Charles van der Hoog