- 09 Jul 2019 22:10
#15017131
Brexit is good in that it demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt the total idiocy of populism. The populists have been spreading their simplistic ideas about national sovereignty and the like without ever having had to prove the validity of their arguments. Actually having to implement the withdrawal from the community demonstrates just how vacuous the populist arguments are.
The EU is the greatest achievement in human history. The HRE outlawed blood feuds in Europe nearly 1,000 years ago. Since then, the nation state and the monopoly of power of the state have gradually replaced tribal structures still prevalent in the greater ME. In this logic, the EU goes one step further by substituting the tribalism of the nation state for the greater good of the community of nations.
The UK is imprisoned by its imperial past. It cannot be satisfied by being one member of a community since it’s striving for hegemony. As a union of small nations, the EU protects its members against the imperialist ambitions of the great powers both inside and outside. Thus, the EU is not the negation of the nation. Quite on the contrary, it is the guarantor of national sovereignty as a defensive union against the imperial powers.
As an illustration of the above: without the EU, Ireland would be at the mercy of the UK. With the EU, the tables are turned and a small country like Ireland finds itself with more leverage than the UK.