Guest post: The last time this kind of nationalism was seen
Guest post by Pieter Droogendijk, originally on Facebook.
It’s a particular kind of person that calls for leaving the E.U, and congratulates the U.K. for doing so. Lots of labels have been used to describe them. Racists, bigots, isolationists, xenophobes, whatever. They may be some of those, or even most of those, but not one of them describes everyone.
But there is one label that describes them all:
Nationalist.
Every one of them thinks Britain is better on its own. ‘Cause fuck everyone else, right? We don’t need the krauts, or the poles, or those milk-drinking clog-fuckers in the Netherlands! Fuck Brussels, and fuck the E.U. We’re the best, ’cause Great is in the name, son!
Nationalism. And it’s on the rise, world-wide.
We’ve got Wilders. Leave the E.U, close the borders, we’ll do it on our own ’cause we’re the best, and fuck all the brown people.
Donald Trump. Build a wall, keep the aliens out. Make America White Again!
Erdogan, Turkey’s best. Putin, Russia’s best. Beatrix von Storch of the German AfD. Sweden Democrats. Danish People’s Party. The fucking Golden Dawn, in Greece. Fucking hell, those guys.
Guess what, folks? They can’t all be right. But you can all be wrong.
So what does this have to do with the E.U? Well, what do you hear from the brexitters?
“What about all the rules? What about corruption? What about money? What about Greece? What about refugees?”
Guess what. It’s a political body. It’s not perfect. But just because it’s not perfect, doesn’t mean it’s not worth having. And I’ll tell you why.
The last time this kind of nationalism was seen, it ended up destroying Europe in something we now call World War II. When that was over, and the world was in shambles, a bunch of nations decided to try to prevent it from happening a third time in a row.
To foster an atmosphere of cooperation. For trade, free movement, liberty, and economic stability. Rise together, fall together. An ALLIANCE. You know, all that shit the GOOD GUYS always talk about in movies.
That’s what the fucking European Union means to me. I’m not Dutch. I’m a European, living in the Netherlands.
Nationalism. And it’s on the rise, world-wide
Does anyone have any idea just why that has become the case?
Canada has been racked with nationalism since the 60s, and the country was nearly dissolved on two occasions, so I’m kinda used to the atmospherics of nationalism.
I think people make a real mistake not acknowledging the core of real concerns among these nationalists.
They’re looking for someone to blame and they’re blaming the wrong people and falling into xenophobia. They are. It’s true.
But that doesn’t mean there is no truth to their malaise. We’d do a lot better to acknowledge what’s true about their worries.
Yes, corporations have been allowed to use globalization to rip off everyone else. That has to stop. Followed by list of 3-4 points that could help, starting with corporate taxes on global profits.
And, yes, pain about loss of way of life is not just some stupid racist bigoted bullshit. It’s a real problem, it needs some sort of solution (no I have no idea what). Maybe at least mitigation. Norway, with their classes for migrants might be showing the way. I don’t know. But what I do know is that way of life issues are a huge deal, and they’re not all down to xenophobia.
It’s hard for us cosmopolitan progressives to understand what gets people so upset about some of these changes. Maybe think about it in terms of being helicoptered and dropped into a northern Arkansas rural village without internet. There’s people at the diner. They talk about how awful the Federal government is and how they need better price supports for their beef cattle. (Seriously. That’s from life. I was sitting in such a diner, listening to that conversation.) The other place people gather is the local Baptist church. That’s it. No bookstores, no coffee shops. No internet (I know, I said that already). And just really spend ten solid minutes trying to live in that place in your mind. I know if it was me and I couldn’t afford the bus, I’d be walking out of there with the clothes on my back.
That’s what the loss of your way of life feels like. And if you can’t walk out, and you have to live there, it does very very very strange things to your head, and your heart, after a while.
That would be more convincing, quixote, were it not for the fact that surveys show the people most panicky about immigration tend to come from communities barely affected by it and that the places which have seen the most benefit from EU membership – Cornwall, the South Wales valleys – enthusiastically voted out.
Took me a while to get back here. Very interesting, Maureen. Just responding on the off chance you’ll see it.