A few short weeks ago, the high and mighty,
shitey-tightey piece of shit they’ve had to call President for the best part of
a decade told Blighty to get to the back of the queue if she dared call time on
the disastrous four-decade long EU dalliance. Yes, the weak and feeble cried,
yes we must stay! Outside lies hunger and starvation and loneliness and
decline. But inside, the machine will feed us and care for us and keep us warm.
Stay, stay they pleaded, it’s so cold outside.
The overbearing, unaccountable European Union has been
compared to the old USSR and echoes of 1984 appear in the news on an almost
daily basis. The Ministry of Truth, the rewriting of history, but above all the
aspiration to control every aspect of the lives of its citizens blinds it to
the fighting instincts of human nature. If only the humanity could be bred or trained
out of us entirely. The social engineering that has been more evident recently
has borne down upon the last two generations as an apparently benevolent
velvety-gloved fist... or a boot, stamping on a human face – forever.
1984 is, of course but one in a long line of allegories
about big state control and the helplessness of the little people. Unlike many
such apocalyptic visions it holds no hope for redemption; Big Brother always
wins and the best you can hope for is that you want him to. If you encountered
the absolute certainties of the Remainians outside of this context you could
only conclude you were in the company of a cult member. The EU is unforgiving
church, tough loving family and ruthless captor in alternate measures. Do as we
say and we’ll stop beating you; you have the power to stop the pain
And the threats of beatings have been coming thick and
fast of late, with talking head after talking head lining up to say how badly
we will get bruised if we dare to take on the machine. Like the first Rocky
movie, they land blow after blow but the underdog still has fight in him and
just won’t stay down. Logan’s Run, The Matrix, The Island; all visions set in
totalitarian regimes and in every one of them we root for the maverick.
But a progenitor of all of these tales is E. M. Forster’s
The Machine Stops, a tale of soft subjugation where divide and rule is taken to
the ultimate degree. All are apparently served by the machine but give up their
independence and freedom to do so. Who can deny that European leaders are building their
machine with the collusion others and the exclusion of its populations from
democratic choice? Is Greenpeace’s revelation of the aims of TTIP evidence for this? The Independent, a generally pro EU mouthpiece
certainly seems to think so.
How we will remember washday in the EU
The most wondrous machines work best when their mechanisms are mysterious, unknown,
yet perform an essential task and do so until a better alternative supercedes
them. One day in the future the working parts of the EU will belong in a museum, alongside cassette recorders and washing dollies. One day, with our intervention or not, the EU machine will just stop.
As you say one day the EU machine will stop seize up. It was obsolete some decades ago as soon as it's raison d'etre; to keep the peace in Europe was proven to be a mirage. It was not needed for that other factors were and are much better at achieving that. Trade of course is the most important of them and if the EU had been a facilitator just for that then the machine could have become a perpetual motion one.
ReplyDeleteIt did not stop at that remain a facilitator it wanted more to control and command the result it is now fuelling conflict and destroying those other important peace keeping factors democracy and wealth creation.
I am delighted to see reference to E.M. Forster's incredible foresight in The Machine Stops. Even more amazing when you consider it was written in 1927. As IT progresses his dystopian vision seems to grow ever nearer.
ReplyDeleteActually it was written in 1909 and later released in a collection in 1927 or 8.
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