The Oxford boys called "liars" by Macron, Theresa May thinks she is humiliated.

The Oxford boys called "liars" by Macron, Theresa May thinks she is humiliated.

Brexiting. A series on being English. # 09

What is happening in the negotiations between the British (actually, they are all English) and the European negotiators cannot be understood unless one knows two defining elements of the English culture.
The first peculiarity is that people who have gone through Eton and/or Oxford, like all the major players in Brexit, including Theresa May herself, cannot accept that they are not seen as God's gift to mankind.
The second defining element is
that it is inconceivable to them that England would give up one of its conquests, in this case Northern Ireland. There are religious problems of course but in this particular moment in time it is the lack of support in the English parliament for the government of prime minister Theresa May that has driven her into the arms of the DUP, the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. She needs at least 326 votes in parliament to have a majority. Thanks to her error in calling an unwarranted early election, which was held on June 8, 2017, her Conservative Party now only commands 318 seats. The DUP has 10 seats. Together they have 328 votes, sufficient to do as she pleases without taking into account the wishes of other parties, except the DUP.

The first factor, which one might call the mind of the upper-class or ruling class, created Brexit. Perhaps it was just a fun game for Boris Johnson, like a wager when having a beer at a counter of a bar. It is certain he did not understand the ramifications of Brexit at all. He knew only one thing, viz.  his peers felt the same. They had enough of Brussels. They had gotten irritated that "them bloody continentals" were not impressed by them at all and were reluctant to give in to all those special demands and exceptions that the Oxford boys required from them. This irritated both sides deeply.
The second factor cannot be solved unless the Oxford clique comes to its senses and that is something that will never happen because their mind is part of their culture. Their ways of thinking are cut in stone and passed on down from generation to generation. Most of them, like Boris Johnson, must be unaware of this or not care otherwise their behaviour and thinking cannot be explained. To them, their ways are the obvious ways, no other can exist that are any good.

So, as we have predicted a year ago, the negotiations all came to nought. The demands of the English Oxfordians were conceived from a vantage point so high, that it gave vertigo to all common people involved. And the Northern Irish DUP got a billion pounds sterling plus special defense and police support and some other things that would make the protestant Northern Irish stronger toward the Catholics in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Religion, or superstition as Stephen Fry calls it, is the strongest motivation for humans because it touches at the deepest incentive a person can have and that is to liberate himself from the shackles of unwanted existential conditions, especially in the mental and social areas, which could be called 'spiritual' if that word would not have been falsely claimed by the meanest materialists that exist.

As noted before, the English seem to love heroic antics, especially when it hurts.See my blog post on Brexiting #07. But this goes only for the classes that can sustain pain without suffering from it. As it is those classes that decide on Brexit, it can be predicted that the actual Brexit will be a very messy affair indeed. Of course, if a new referendum will be called upon, the English voters will vote against Brexit. But in that case, it may well be that "those bloody continentals" have had enough of the English upper class's demands for special treatment and say, "Good riddance, John Bull! Bye!"

The Philosopher of Culture, Amsterdam, 26 September, 2018; 11:01 CEST