The trouble is the clock says 1931
George Szirtes comments on Brexit xenophobia. He’s an immigrant himself, one who has lived in the UK for 60 years. (What happened in Hungary in 1956? You know.)
It is not as if the xenophobia that so influenced the leave campaign as it moved from economics to immigration did not exist before – it exists everywhere and often in more virulent form. Indeed, it set the stage for the campaign, and those who had muttered in the wings were encouraged to come out and occupy it. The filthy messages to Poles, the graffiti on public buildings, are part of the same spectrum that saw the hooligans on a tram in Manchester threaten a man with the words: “You’re a fucking immigrant. Get off this tram.” And: “Immigrants get deported!”
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And such things resonate well beyond these shores. There are plenty of politicians just waiting to echo the cry, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders most overtly. Some, like Viktor Orbán in Hungary would simply ban immigrants getting on Hungarian trams in the first place.
I sometimes think – and am not alone in thinking – that we are turning the clock back and have been doing so for some time, that everywhere in Europe and the United States, and in Russia, indeed worldwide, people are busily turning clocks back. They think they are returning to a golden age when everything was better. The trouble is the clock says 1931, maybe even 1932.
That’s certainly what I keep thinking. Don’t people know how this went then? Do they really want that all over again?
There is generosity in this country. We are generous with little lies and have been suspicious of bigger ones but swallowed a few whoppers in this referendum campaign. It has been a filthy war if a phony one. Some are already retreating on their claims about the economy and about the procedures that will lead us back to those famous sunlit uplands.
Big lies work. States are fragile fabrics. We are more fragile at this point than at any time in my life here. As is Europe, partly because of us.
Big lies do work. They work for Trump and they worked for Brexit. Bad times.
Ian Kershaw’s “To Hell And Back: Europe 1914-1949” presents a long but also succinct survey of how rampant xenophobia in a vast number of forms throughout Europe (as well as Russia, Japan, and other nations) was instrumental (along with other factors, which it helped to stimulate) in plunging the continent and much of the planet into the unprecedented catastrophes of both World Wars, from which humanity has still not entirely recovered .
But “…And Back” appears to be taking on a new meaning that the author probably did not intend — back to the worldwide hell that humanity was able to leave behind at long last, and in an infinitely worse form this time.
Kershaw powerfully details how Europe, after diving headlong over many years into the worst form of hell in history, did manage in the end and against all odds to come to its senses and struggle back to some semblance of sanity as well as prosperity, at least in Western Europe.
A hopeful story, in other words.
However, it is now becoming sickeningly clear that this hopeful outcome is in danger of obliteration, that “…and Back” could turn out to have a horribly different meaning, given that xenophobia in innumerable forms appears to be on the march again.
So the parallels between the “To Hell…” of Kershaw’s title and what seems to be happening nowadays not only in Europe — especially now that modern weaponry gives the human race the ability to commit mass suicide — are starting to become more and more chilling by the month, sometimes by the week, even by the day.
Can it be true that we collectively have learned nothing even after the ghastly wars of the 20th Century.
Must the old outcry “Never again!” continue to be “Ever again!”?
Are we condemned along the lines of what a character says in “Citizen Kane”: “If it was anybody else, I’d say one lesson would be enough. But you’re going to need more than one lesson, and you’re going to get more than one lesson.”?
It’s rather strange how some English people are hostile to immigrants. They have been immigrating in large numbers since the 17th century and are the descendants of immigrants themselves. They’re always ready to offer unsolicited advice on how things can be improved in the host country.
In reference to an earlier post about anti-Polish sentiment. My eldest nephew lived in England in the 90s. He mentioned that, in what I would call ‘working class’ areas, there was considerable resentment of immigrants particularly Poles and Spanish people even that long ago. It’s been simmering for quite some time. The Polish contribution to the war effort was ‘forgotten’ by the British rather soon after the war, for diplomatic reasons.
The cognitive dissonance of English immigrants to NZ writing to the news websites to declare that Brexit was wonderful and how immigrants ruin the countries they move to has not been lost on me. Doubly so as we have a housing affordability crisis in our main cities at present, in large part because net immigration by cashed up new arrivals is pricing many locals out of the market.
Rob @ 3
We have a very similar experience here in Australia. One possible factor in the Brexit vote that seems to be ignored is that some English people, on the conservative side of politics, have vastly inflated notions of the country’s resources, The “We won the War all by ourselves” mentality seems to still have some appeal.
I’d agree with your comments in regard to the negative effects of mass immigration. There are sound economic, social and environmental arguments against it, however anyone who expresses scepticism is usually accused of ‘racism’. One positive aspect of the Brexit vote is that’s it’s exposed the hypocrisy of the English.
RJW, mass immigration can have positive effects. The cultural and culinary diversity that make Australia’s major cities so vibrant are a direct result of the influx of migrants post WW2. Australia has benefited from nett immigration from NZ for decades, despite it’s portrayal of NZers as dole bludging, job stealing criminals. NZ has certainly benefited from the arrival of immigrants. It’s just that in recent times population/development stress has negatively impacted specifically house affordability in the most popular cities.
All of this is quite apart from say, the arrival of 1 million largely Syrians to Europe. They were not immigrants, they were refugees and the issue should be addressed and framed in that manner.
I guess the bulk of the UKIP minded Brexiters don’t care about the huge number of Britons living and working in the EU because they are not themselves interested in going to Europe, except maybe as football hooligans.
Rob,
Of course mass immigration can have positive effects, however it doesn’t follow that more mass immigration is necessarily better. Not all countries can cope with mass immigration indefinitely, the required increase in infrastructure investment is often unsustainable. Sweden is an example of the negative effects of uncontrolled mass immigration. I think you’re generalising, not all Australians think that Kiwis are dole-bludging, job-stealing criminals.
I saw some video of one of those football matches, the Russians won 26 chairs to 0 and one of the England supporters got a bath in the sea.
Yes, RJW, as is often the case with complex and variable scenarios the ‘truth’ is not absolute.
Did you just damn someone with faint praise? I can’t make up my mind if it was Aussies or Kiwis! Muldoon (remember that asshole?) said that Kiwis going to Oz raised the IQ of both countries.
In any event the good news is that mass migration only occurs as long as there is incentive to do so. Improve conditions at home, people don’t leave. maybe that is the solution? I would not have described what the UK has experienced as mass migration and certainly not anything that has done them harm. I also noted that one of the Leave voters who expressed their regret the next day was clearly of Indian/Pakistan/Bangladesh decent, albeit with a very colloquial accent. Yesterdays immigrants are tomorrows locals and we should all remember that. Especially those of us living in ex-colonies and descended from settlers.
Rob,
No, I’m not damning anyone with faint praise. I worked with Kiwis for years there wasn’t any of the friction that’s developed recently. I’m not defending Australian prejudices, however as you obviously agree the insults go both ways and no Oz PM has made any remark equivalent to Muldoon’s. (I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve read or heard that remark repeated) Years ago I considered migrating to NZ and I did some initial research, the Oz bashing in the NZ MSM was unexpected. Like the English Leftist journalists they seemed to have invented an Australia that they can sneer at. I’ve spoken to British visitors here and some are amazed at how ‘Asian’ Australia has become, perhaps the were influenced by all those middle class white Oz soapies that were popular in the UK some years ago. They might be surprised by NZ as well.
The major problem with New Zealanders is that they think all Australians are interested in rugby, most southerners, like me don’t give a rat’s.
It’s an interesting discussion for Australasians, unfortunately we’re way OT.
Indeed we are. Pop over some time and we’ll have a yack.
Having said that, we are not entirely off topic. Countries like Australia, and even NZ, that are distant from many of the obvious stresses at work in Europe, have a relatively large and educated middle class and that are ‘well protected’ in many ways, still have a rise in the tribalism, xenophobia and latent racism that afflicts others. plus we have a history of being drawn into other peoples wars. I’m less pessimistic about a nuclear war than I was in the late 70’s early 80’s; but more pessimistic about war in general…