INDEX	Saturday July 3, 2021
Great Misunderstandings
This is not about the EU. Most people in this country regard Britain's exit from the EU as a great success. The shops are still full of fruit and veg despite the dire warnings about labour shortages. The reason they can't go to the Mediterranean holiday spots is Covid regulations (or lack of cash). Far from demanding complex visa requirements and forcing the Brits to wait in long passport queues, the sunshine countries are begging the British tourists to come back. However, a significant minority of my countrypersons, hold exactly the opposite view. They are convinced that Northern Ireland is on the edge of a bloodbath and that the menial tasks that used to be performed by East Europeans will now go undone. Most particularly they are sure all the banks have fled the city for EU regulated places like Frankfurt. That last one is a bit of a joke really (though many believe it) since London is never going to be replaced as the centre of financial sleaze, money laundering and tax evasion. That fact is a cause for national shame, not pride. But to return to the theme: how come quite sensible people (there are sensible people on both sides) can hold such divergent views not about the future, but about what is actually happening now? I think it's to do with echo chambers. Today we all live in an echo chamber and if anything challenges our world view, we click to the next subject. As a consequence, we are all, like Miss Havisham, trapped in a world of our own creation. The practical upshot of this is that when it comes to even major issues like the NHS, talking about it becomes a dialogue of the deaf. On the one hand some people believe that there's absolutely nothing wrong with it that a bit more privatisation would not cure. Others think it is in dire danger of collapse and we are about to face an American style landscape, where millions of people are bankrupted and impoverished by health bills. As a consequence of this divergence of world views we have things like Dog Whistle Politics. If you don't know what this is, think of it as someone shouting across a crowded room of right on anti racist people and aiming to reach the one person in the corner who wants to hear a racist message, and delivering that message without offending the crowd. These are strange times and hold on to your hat (if you are wearing one) because they are going to get stranger.
Posted by Jonathan Brind.
INDEX
Saturday July 3, 2021