It has been a rather long time since i’ve bothered to put up a blog post, mostly due to a sharp increase in work offline.
But in a few short days a vote of some historical import is about to occur.
For many people across the Earth, it will simply be a Thursday – like any other Thursday that has come and gone in the history of man. Undoubtedly there will be love, laughter, death, and tears as the world keeps spinning onward.
But for a small, if sturdy, island nation and its neighbors, June 23rd is a true test of a rather bruised and battered dream.
Since the end of the Cold War, much of the modern world had been sold an idea of the world “coming together.” How this would happen was validated in many ways. Off the top of my head…
- The Internet will Unite the World.
- Its the Dawn of the New American Century.
- And of course, European Integration as a first step toward something bigger.
Taking a quick look in the current time period, I can’t help but notice how the trajectory has gone in the reverse direction.
- Brexit.
- Scottish Independence.
- Catalan Independence in Spain.
- East Timor leaving Indonesia.
- The Virtual Break-up of Iraq along Tribal/Sectarian lines.
The above is a mix bag of course – but whether its the effects of a civil war, the desire of a free polity to leave a greater union, or undoing the inheritance of colonialism one thing is clear – people aren’t so keen on forming greater political unions of any sort.
Where once we dreamed of some sort of “End of History” style unification, people now seem to operate on the adage that “smaller is better.” That, when all is said and done about the virtues of cross-cultural or international experiences, a desire still exists in many people to have some patch of this Earth where we can be around others “like-us.”
And so the pendulum swings toward favoring smaller social communities…….
…for now.
Echo House 