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The Realities of Power
The harsh truth of the USA-UK “special relationship”
One of the most enduring characteristics of the human mind is its incapacity.
People consistently over-estimate their own capabilities and under-estimate difficulties. People persistently tell themselves comforting fables instead of grappling with complex reality. This is why we have the history we read about in books: folly after folly, blunder after blunder, catastrophe after catastrophe — and all totally unnecessary.
This is the continuing story of one particularly amusing recent self-imposed catastrophe: Brexit.
As everyone knows, back in 2016 the British were presented with a choice: remain within the European Union, a structure that had ensured the longest period of peace and mutual prosperity for Europe since the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 CE, or leave in order to “take back control.” On the Remain side, economic arguments based on facts; on the Leave side, infantile lies, overt appeals to racism, and more infantile lies.
Naturally the Leave side won, much to the surprise of those promoting it who’d assumed it was a risk-free way to bathe in publicity and advance their personal brands. Those who ran both the Leave campaign and the Remain campaign had equally made the fatal mistake of over-estimating…
