Brexit

I don't pretend to be an expert on what the fudge is going on in Britain right now, but from what I've been hearing through my trusty source on anything involving European news (the BBC), I'm both surprised and a bit troubled by the decision handed down by our friends across the pond today. Most of what I've heard from "leavers" is pretty standard conservative stuff: we want to be free to operate our economy and govern without being under the thumb of the EU. Understandable.

HOWEVER. The not-so-suble undertone of what I've heard speaks to some eyebrow-raising lines of thought. A common thread is this tired idea that foreign economic influence and even (gasp) immigration are bad for a country's economy. The only way those two things are bad is if the folks pushing the buttons don't want to make potentially risky adaptations to their business or to the nation's social structure. In my little brain, saying foreign business shouldn't be allowed to influence the British economy because it could "hurt British businesses" is akin to saying no one should ever exercise because they might pull a muscle. If anyone really wants to subscribe to a market economy and make it "effective," competition is a good thing - even if it comes from another country.

And as for immigration, I speak from experience when I say migrant workers generally work their asses off. If a terrorist wants to do bad shit in your neighborhood, not allowing him or her to become a citizen WILL NOT STOP THEM great glad we cleared that up.

Bottom line: economic and social isolationism covered in a thin layer of nationalism went south pretty darn fast the last time Europe gave it a shot (see: WWII). The panic will wear off soon enough, but this trend towards fearmongering and short-sightedness in Europe is unsettling. For me, the EU is a recognition of how interpedentent European nations are in virtually every way, and I hope the rest of Europe has the balls to keep it together and see past this.