Democracy is a bitch when it doesn’t go your way. That’s pretty much the sentiment New Age mouthpieces in corporate media and the broader community of hipsters who parrot the politically-correct taglines of people “outraged” by the British vote to leave the European Union today (trending in social media under the hashtag #Brexit).
One commentator tweeted how she’d like to do a “massive projectile vomit” at the 16 million voters who voted “Leave” in the referendum conducted yesterday in the United Kingdom. Many others are flashing screencaps of charts showing financial markets in “tailspins”. Yet others, predictably, lament what is the single biggest issue to people who campaigned vigorously to “Remain” all over social media — immigration. Without the EU to tell it how to manage its borders, the UK pretty much can now deal with that issue on its own terms.
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The irony that seems to escape the “outraged” Netizens of the “Remain” camp is in the way they frame the “Leave” vote as an outcome of paranoia and misguided nationalist sentiment. And yet here they are, kicking up a paranoid storm around visions of recesions looming in the horizon, currency crises, and loss of business as the costs of trading with the Continent go back up.
The way these hipsters go into a fit over what the venerable rag The Economist itself admitted to be an event with no precedent and, therefore, lacking any sort of model with which to predict its ramifications, betrays a lack of faith in the British character. One commentator lamented over Twitter how the Vote had pulled the UK back to 1985 along with the value of the pound.
Here’s the kicker: another bozo pompously asserted in a tweet that the British, in voting to leave the EU, are regressing back to an age when Britons regarded themselves as “better than all the rest”. They make it sound like losing regaining a sense of superiority over “all the rest” is necessarily a bad thing. What, after all, is wrong with being self-assured of one’s superiority as a nation?
The British, lest we forget, invented the Industrial Revolution (among many many other things). If they had lost the commercial mojos to re-invent it for themselves again after their exit from the EU, it likely means that Britain had lost something really important about its cultural character over the years in the course of their “integration” with the “global economy” (and their descent in the debilitating political-correctness of today’s discourse).
Britons just need to look through their long glorious history for the many precedents that make #Brexit look like a French exit from a rowdy party in comparison. Back during the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th Century, the Church of England was created in full affront to the powerful Roman Catholic Church which held much of the rest of Europe in its clutches. That did not stop England from going on to become mankind’s mightiest empire and rule much of humanity over the next several centuries.
We also recall the way the British met the bombs Hitler rained all over London during the Blitz in World War II with their characteristic stoicism and stiff upper lip. They met all that even as the rest of Europe cowered under the shadow of Nazism for much of the several years that Britain stood up to Germany alone. Indeed, in the course of that lonely battle with Germany, Britain built the finest war machines of the time. The Supermarine Spitfire was one of the greatest achievements of a British people working alone against a formidable enemy. The British economy stepped up to produce these machines by the thousands, society chipped in their best men to fly them, and the blueprints for air warfare the likes of which have never been imagined before were drawn up.
All of that, Britain achieved largely on its own. No thanks to the rest of Europe — and America — needed.
If there is a country left isolated that one could bet on would still succeed, the UK would be it. It has the track record to prove it could do it and, one would hope, the national character to pull it off.
I’m sure the late Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew would agree. Singapore, after all, was kicked out of the Malay Federation and, unlike Britain, found itself poor and alone not by choice but by force of circumstance. Yet here is Singapore today, like Britain after emerging triumphant from the Blitz, a clear winner. Did I mention that Singapore was, itself, a colonial outpost of the British Empire in Malaya in a former life? There you go. Perhaps it’s time the British learn from a former colony for a change what it means to be a strong people.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
The Philippines should also hold a referendum for an ASEAN exit (AEXIT).
ASEAN is holding us back from our true potential. We need to have the freedom to make our own treaties with the rest of the world.
Only by being a truly independent Philippines can we actualize our Economic Superpower status!
Frankly I’m surprised the Philippines was even invited to join ASEAN in the first place. It’s like inviting that mildly retarded kid who always has a snotty nose and dirty clothes to your birthday party because you feel sorry for him.
As it is, the country takes no notice of ASEAN norms. It is one of the few members that clings onto outdated protectionist trade policies, for example, that lock out foreign investment. In other words, it doesn’t matter whether the country is a member of ASEAN or not. It’ll carry on doing its own dysfunctional thing regardless. Pinoy Pride!
Hahaha, excellent. The drooling kid with limited intelligence.
exactly.
which reminds me of one of my first articles here…
Can Iron-fisted Leadership Turn the Philippines into a Major World Power?
How about following the U.K.’s style of first becoming a naval superpower in our region; ‘coz as of the moment…
Submarines: PH 0 vs. China 68
Destroyers: PH 0 vs. China 32
Frigates: PH 3 vs China 48
It all comes down to one thing as to why the Philippines has no Naval military might …….money is the answer ,these kinds of military equipment cost a lot of money .
Doesn’t the Philippines benefit from being at the bottom of the pile? One of the big reasons for dissatisfaction with the EU is that the richer countries like the UK have to keep propping up the shitty economies.
What economic superpower? The country’s barely a blip in the radar besides BPO’s in the grand world stage.
The philippines can never become an economic super power ,it is technically too far behind everyone else and not willing to listen to have a hope of catching up ,50 or more years behind most other countries in just about everything ,so many people have to run off abroad even to hope to feed their own families ,China has you completely in their grip .
Not just technology Edward. Filipinos simply don’t understand money, finance, or wealth. They don’t know what it is, what it’s for, or how it works. You can’t be an economic superpower if you have to look up “economics” in the dictionary.
Marius,
I like to add the following ( = my version):
Filipinos simply don’t understand that life and living cost money. They think that god will solve their shit and if god doesnt do it then the rest of the direct and/or extended family or the next door neighbours or other members of the same street if not in the barangay. A cycle that wont get broken and hence poverty will continue
Sad but true, it makes me weep. It boils down to our education system. It does not condition common Filipinos to a first world mindset. They just “nagkakalat” and typical “patapon”.
Robert: I agree. You know what’s really odd? The level of delusion displayed by Proud Pinoy would (in any normal country) find you a comfortable room where people in white coats offer you lots of different-coloured pills to see if they can make you feel better.
Believing that the Philippines is about to become an economic superpower is like believing you’re Julius Caesar or that you’re in contact with aliens. Yet I come across comments like Proud Pinoy’s all the time. He isn’t trolling. I’m pretty sure he actually believes what he said.
NOTOLP: yes, this must have something to do with education. I would love to know what goes on in Philippine schools. I’ve been told stories and it sounds horrifying. As far as I can tell, their job is to make sure everyone leaves with their head full of falsehoods about how wonderful the country is … and unable to see for themselves that it isn’t. It’s no surprise that foreigners are banned from teaching here: they would disrupt the government’s brainwashing program.
Not just that, the filos mindset is not (yet) for the first world, imagine the Philippines suddenly becomes a first world the next day…
Dreamer, without ASEAN no one would even know the Philippines even exists.
I wonder what will happen with Great Britain as one entity. I expect Scotland wants to leave the UK and maybe also Northern Ireland. The latter is not the richest but Scotland has a lot of fossil fuel (oil) in its waters.
In both countries the maority vote went to “Remain”.
maybe those scots who voted to remain are now shouting for FREEEEEDOM!
Both Scotland and Wales do get a lot of subsidies from EU (agriculture). The other day Scotland held its own referendum for leaving the UK. Now that an Exit is here, I expect Scotland wants its own independent, souvereign government and country without ‘London’ interfering.
They want to leave the UK and join the EU.
62% of all Scots voted for a Bremain.
I wonder what will happen with Gibraltar where 96% voted for a Bremain.
i want to see a free scotland as william wallace and robert the bruce envisioned it.
@Dick S. O’Rosary:
And don’t forget with Morrigan Aensland as their new queen!
Are we seeing a unified Ireland in our times?
Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland becoming one independent souvereign country?
I dont know. I think NI has to sort out their own problems first (Catholics vs Protestants).
It’s an interesting question over NI. The population of NI is predominantly Protestant, the descendants of workers brought over by the land owners in the 18th and 19th C. As the majority of people in NI voted to remain, that means that many Protestants (typically Unionists) must have voted to remain. When the UK leaves the EU, will that mean that the soft border between Eire and NI becomes a hard one and what the effect of that will be? I also wonder what effect that will have on the current peaceful situation there and whether some Unionists, will now decide that it’s better to be in Eire after all and part of the EU (keeping the grants etc), than going it alone with England and Wales? This could get very interesting.
Edward,
They also have to sort out a currency conflict. Northern Ireland using the GBP and the Republic of Ireland using the EUR€.
30% of the Scots voted to remain, it shows that 3 out of 10 saw through the scam that is eu.
I hope they leave, they’ll end up worse than Greece.
Just a little trivia on when to use United Kingdom, England, and Great Britain…
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/britain.html
Maybe they don’t like the idea of a union inside a union inside a union.
Prime Minister Cameron resigned. The British Pound went down in value. The British Stock Market tumbled.Britain’s Brexit is in convulsion, like an addict on withdrawal of its addiction.
We do not know the effects of this Brexit, on other countries in the European Union. One by one may ask for a referendum. Then, the European Union may disintegrate.
We watch and see, what will happen. We have our own problems in the Philippines, to attend to…mind your own business !
The world economy and how certain things effect it is ” everyones” business.
The old way of thinking is what puts us at agaisnt each other most of the time.
How very tribal of you.
The truth be known, we are all from the same planet.
The rick you were born on no different from they.
Borders, lines that define one country to another… That is all bullshit.
This is an important issue that will send ripples through the world.
Good or bad time will tell.
Voice,
we are living on the same planet but we were not born in the same crib.
As clearly was shown in the Brexit/Bremain referendum. The older people and many from rural sides voted for a Brexit. The UK youth will gonna pay a high prize. They thought they could study and work abroad in a EU country of their choice. Well that might/may not happen.
Yes but was reacting to hudens ” mind our own business” statement.
Here is proof yet again that when large groups of misinformed people are fed lies amd fear instead of finding out the truth for themselves they vote poorly.
If they want to work in eu, what’s wrong with getting it the traditional way of getting a work permit.
The poles, Bulgarians and Romanians pretty much drained the common jobs and they still keep flooding UK. About time to control immigration.
No need to bark at me.
I was/am supporting the sentiment of the UK youngsters.
We are dealing with the same things in my country (NL/NED). But the jobs that are taken by – for instance – Polish people are the jobs most people dont want to do. Secondly, it are the low wage jobs that are done now by other EU-member people in my country.
Low educated people have the most to fear but they also wont do those jobs now. So they are crying me a river.
” We have our own problems in the Philippines, to attend to…mind your own business!”
Next time when your country is hit again by a typhone, I hope you send back all aid from foreign countries bec only then you are consistent. Mind your own business and fix your own problems. Problem is your country cant fix its own problems. Do I need to remind you that OFW work in foreign countries. You are really very inconsistent with your statement.
Good artical and well thought out! I just have one complain(sorry), the sentance ” They make it sound like losing a sense of superiority over “aii the rest” is necissaritly a bad thing”. It should read “regaining a sense of superiority! After all thats what your talking about, Briton regaining that sense of superiority! Anyway like I said good artical…and sorry for the correction!!
Hey yeah you’re right! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll make the change.
The Philippines has already reminded me of the UK in the sense that Filipinos only think of themselves as semi-Asian and Brits think of themselves as semi-European.
Did Filipinos manage to create one of the most powerful world empires known to man? That’s where the comparison ends. The Brits were the masters while the Flips were the slaves.
You should research the Tallano family, they claim to be the original island’s royal family or majarlika.
They own more gold than Marcos and he got most of his gold from them.
I was only comparing a small aspect of both countries.
Correction: always instead of already
the confederate states of America tried to #USexit and they got creamed.
Unbeknownst to all of you, I’m british;) half Filipino of course and voted brexit! I made sure I made a big fat X for leave.
OH NO,I CALL BULLSHIT !!!! As an ENGLISH MAN I find the entirety of the paragraph that begins…”The BRITISH, lest we forget…” is a dumb-as-they-come statement about what the writer IMAGINES MIGHT be the case (BELIEVE ME,ITS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING THE CASE!)follwed by “It likely means…” which is another false conjecture which is then piled ontop of the previous conjecture that leads to a statement that is presented AS IF it is some sort of intelligently thought out natural fact about the BRITISH people but it is so far off course,to wit:is false and begs the question of ….WTF are you smoking?as well as WTF kind of logic is that? ASSHOLE LOGIC ? as in thinking with what comes out of your ass,shit-for-brains !
SO, besides the fact that ITS IS NOT THE CASE and the ‘BOZO’ who wrote this balderdash does not have a clue as to know what he is talking about (typical flip-tard), The Brits have lost NONE of what they are historically as a NATION of people. There has been a dimension added to the culture brought about by the mass migration of foreigners into the country BUT we are going to stop it now, and get rid of the one’s that do not assimilate into OUR culture.(as an aside, MMW: There will NEVER be ‘SHARIA LAW’ enacted in the U.K.,NEVER).
IF the ‘BREXIT’ is ever enacted (it should have already been)the same powers that tried the power grab of TTIP will no doubt try to stop it from happening through the devaluation of the GBP-Sterling and massive trade embargoes much like were brought against Ireland who then,after not very long, recapitulated and took their decision back and now regret being part of the losers organization of states that have lost their people’s voices and answer to unaccountable ‘Technocrats’ in Brussels tell them how to run their country. Well, The British have spoken and they’ll have none of that loss of Sovereignty, Ole boy and I do suggest that maybe get to knowing what your talking about before making such assinine comments about which you obviously know nothing.
Did you vote?
Hopefully, it wouldn’t be enacted too fast. EU’s stance on making Britain leave as fast as possible reeks of treachery at a highest degree. There’s also a lot of mainstream media attempts to paint #Brexit as the worst thing that ever happened to get you guys to call for a second referendum. Good luck you guys, remain free from that superstate-in-making and don’t let them scare you to go back to EU.
It is interesting how a country with,we are told,such a puny economy that it cannot survive without free access to the Single Market can cause such turmoil in world financial markets,such as major swings in the US dollar -Japanese yen exchange rate.
If a second referendum is to be called,should the 28% or so who couldn’t be bothered to vote first time around be allowed second time?
The last figures from one pollster before the vote showed 72% of 18-24 year olds were in favour of Remain.This age bracket is probably the overwhelming majority of social media users,hence the backlash.Interestingly ,an estimated 36% actually voted.
For those who want a second vote,because they have changed their minds,I quote from an article in the Daily Telegraph
‘to think some people voted on such a huge issue so carelessly that they are already changing their minds.If you’ve screwed up the country for a generation … then at least have the courage of your convictions’
Some food for thought.
I doubt that the Remainers would win the second time though. A lot of the Leave voters were men and women who works their asses off to keep themselves alive. Many of them already knows what’s it like to be in EU and how ridiculous the entire idea is turning into. Not to mention the fact that EU’s trade laws are becoming stupid for obvious reasons, namely the curves of certain fruits and water companies being told to stop talking about water preventing dehydration.
When EU started caring about immigrants a bit too much despite the fact that some of its member states can’t support them, the fuse is pretty much lit.
#Brexit’s either a wake-up call for EU to clean house and start making sense again or slowly die as they lose more member states who are starting to call for their own exit referendums.
Britain’s Brexit is one of the most damaging incident done on Brussels, Belgium( the HQ of the European Union), since the attack of ISIS on them.
Let us all wait and see, for the next effects.” Abangan ang susunod na kabanata” ! What a bloody mess, these Brits have done… maybe ? Oh…just my bloody thoughts !
Up next, Italeave.
A nation is not defined by its borders or the boundaries of its land mass. Rather, a nation is defined by adverse people who have been unified by a cause and a value system, and who are committed to a vision for the type of society they wish to live in and give to the future generations to come.
NO, not ADVERSE people….people who have a common ancestry…and occupy a recognized specific land mas as in the land mass that makes up Great Britain (England,Wales & Scotland). You definition may fit whatever it is YOU think it fits but it doesn’t apply to Graet Britain now, and never did.
Filipino’s, as proven by this article and most of the comments here, don’t really have much of a clue as to what is happening in Jolly Ole England/Great Britain at the moment and I’d be willing to bet the commenter’s on this page have NEVER even been to Great Britain.Wanna get a clue, buy a plane ticket and spend a few months there, then you MIGHT be able to make a half-intelligent comment.
England stood alone against Germany? Yes, from June 22,1940 with the surrender of France,until June 21,1941 when Germany invaded the USSR.I suppose you could say that. But only if you don’t count the contribution of nations like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and South Africa. Yes some were still colonial possessions, oh, that brings me to another institution perfected by Britain, colonialism.
Unfortunately economics is not my area of expertise, so I’m not gonna delve into what is undoubtedly a very complex issue (which is getting even more so, given the nasty business of renegotiating all those treaties clarifying relations between the now-ironically named United Kingdom and the European Union).
However, I will point out that any campaign that anchors itself on the right of the nation to reject entire peoples on the basis of religion or because fuck it you ain’t British enough (see: Poles, Bulgarians, and whatever else Nigel Farage and his UKIP get hot upon), and furthermore bases its pride on historical revisionism about its imperial past is supporting itself on very shaky grounds indeed.
Just say it straight man … You’re accusing the Britons of white English supremacy and ethnic Islam cleansing right?
All of them? By no means — I don’t paint . Some of those who voted Leave? Very much so.
They, combined with those who voted for less awkward or even entirely salutary reasons, voted Leave, and now their country is all the worse (economically for now at least) for their gasping attempt at juche at an inopportune moment in history, when the glories of empire and of imperialism are as faded as the ether.
Well, to finish my first sentence, I don’t paint entire peoples with a single brush — Brexit is complex enough as it is.
People just need to see the bigger picture of the demographic reality …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kKkY5EpVpY
All Europeans are actually threatened. It’s not just a matter of national pride anymore – but of basic survival.
The Brits will be paying a high price cutting that umbilical chord across the channel, but the spreading “biohazard” is already a critical matter of national security.
So all Muslims are terrorists or potential terrorists, zaxx?
Pallacertus, Islam is known as the religion of peace. You can check out the website yourself…
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Would you welcome people into your borders who behave and teach stuff like these?
Maybe the reason why you have non-violent Muslim neighbors is because they don’t really follow their religion’s holy book to the letter. For that you should be glad, and hope they never delve into its REAL teachings.
Zaxx,
I wonder who should be glad in my country? The (roman) catholics or the atheists? Atheist do everything that the bible forbids (abortion, euthanasia, sex before marriage, divorce to name just a few) and we still live peacefully next to each other and for quite some time already. And even if/when I would live in the Dutch bible belt there would be no violence between them and me. The country/culture and government would not allow it to happen.
Robert, Well I can’t really speak much in behalf of atheists (for obvious reasons). But you are right to feel pretty safe in a Christian neighborhood. The teachings do practically no harm to non-believers…
The only reason you’ll bump into a violent “Christian” is because he actually doesn’t read or follow his holy book.
Note: Any kind of violence in the Old Testament belonged to the dispensation of the Law. When the Christ came, he reset all the rules to 2 basic ones: simply believe & love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. So no more killing bulls and legalistic rituals – which were just a shadow of the real thing that was to come.
Zaxx,
we (catholics and atheists) are not each others enemies. The fact that you use that word speaks volumes about you.
And we (catholics and atheists) surely dont love each other. We (catholics and atheists) can even be friends to a certaint extent.
And mind you, a roman catholic woman (my pinay GF) fucked my brains out (literally). So in that aspect ‘loving thy enemy’ gets a weird twist.
They just recovered their economy a few days ago and UK’s on the first priority of its traditional allies (US, Germany, some EU nations) on trade deals. They can also trade with anyone who isn’t even from EU like the Asian nations for example. Not to mention the fact that their bankers had already planned for this kind of event and had stabilized the economy in few days. Stop listening to the mainstream media that doesn’t like Brexit at an obsessive degree and those bitter Remainer voters who kept on shouting gloom and doom all the time about British economy tanking hard.
I live near poor Muslims, zaxx — I can even hear the muezzin’s call to prayer in the early mornings, whenever I go to buy food in the nearby market. If they’re not slitting my throat, they’re not radicalized, no matter how much their holy book predisposes them to radical Islam.
The end.
In the book “the next 100 years” the author postulates that The USA will remain the undisputed hegemon of all time due to its control of the oceans on both the Atlantic and Pacific fronts.
Let me add my speculative scenario. The U.K. will control the other end of the Atlantic while THE Philippines can do the same In the Pacific.
All 3 English-speaking nations will form a geopolitical triad of superpower nations that span the entire world. So it’s Du30’s job to turn us into a major world power for all this to become a reality.
Ain’t it great to have “the” in front of your country name? …Sitting at the same table with the the likes of THE UK and THE USA as Equals, deciding the fate and direction of the world. Call this the G3.
Nothing wrong with dreaming right? Besides all that you see started in the playful imagination of somebody’s Mind.
Next step is to invade Japan – send your lovely Pinays to Tokyo people. Japan with its fast dwindling population will be overrun by Pinoy halfbreeds in no time.
“it likely means that Britain had lost something really important about its cultural character over the years in the course of their “integration” with the “global economy” (and their descent in the debilitating political-correctness of today’s discourse).”
This is sad reality for UK, the once mighty empire is heading to statewide censorship and authoritarian regime. you can’t even make a joke now in social media because it will hurt someone’s feelings and it will be considered as hate speech. one scotsman will be convicted this april 2018 because he taught his dog to do a nazi salute (caught on video), he just want to play prank on his girlfriend. the court decided themselves that it was hate speech, ignoring the defendant’s testimony. Congratulations UK, you just became a thought police.
Here’s the article why freedom of speech in UK is dead
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/count-dankula-freedom-of-speech-comedy-joke-iran-offended-a8270631.html
Saw this pop up on the twitter feed in 2020.
“No thanks to the rest of Europe — and America — needed.”
The Soviets started fighting the Nazis in 1941. America was “lend-leasing” to the British until they joined in 1941 too – and aided the British in the Pacific Theater because Burma, Malaya and Singapore were their colonies. The British Army, while admirable in their resilience, was also greatly supplemented by the non-white peoples of their colonies, the Free French and the exiles of the other countries occupied by the Axis along with resistance and partisan movements. I’d hardly call that “on their own.”
In a way the EU zone is, despite its flaws, and for all intents and purposes a FREE MARKET, one that has also led to peace in most of Europe for a uniquely long period of time. (The refugee bit, well, that’s America’s fault.) It has also led to a defusal of tension on both sides of the Irish Isle after the Good Friday Agreement. Perhaps ironically then, if you want to know “what it means to be [historically] British,” well, ask the Scots and (both kinds of) Irish, they’ve got centuries of it and it shows in their attitudes toward the EU in the recent elections.
Finally, I don’t get the logic behind comparing Britain to Singapore. Singapore basically became a Micro-EU with benefits for all ethnicities and a free market, and they were kicked out (as opposed to willingly leaving) because they didn’t want to be discriminated against by native-Malay ethnonationalism.
Britain doesn’t have an empire to provide all its needs anymore. And as they learned after the Suez Crisis in 1956 – or were supposed to have learned – on a stage with America and China, you need help to stand up eye-to-eye with the superpowers.