Project Gutenberg, where I spend so much time online, is apolitical except on one designated "Political" forum. The politics there have a marked leftist tinge, which shouldn't be surprising given the academic focus and the fact that members come from many countries.
Today one of the few conservatives posted a cheerful note of congratulations for Brexit Day, which naturally drew a number of cheerless responses. I posted brief responses to the first few, adopting what I consider the moderate view: without presuming to dictate to my British brethren what they should want for themselves, I merely observe that this is what they in fact chose.
That got a handful of sour notes about how difficult it is to divine what the "people really want." I suppose so, but I'd rather go with the popular vote as a reasonable barometer than indulge in mindreading or the imposition of what's best for them by someone else's lights. What then surprised me most was a series of posts arguing that Brexit was unfair because of its impact on British expats. Expats in France, for instance, no longer can expect to be eligible to run for local office in the French villages they have chosen for themselves. So Brexit's anti-choice, see? One fellow is unhappy that he let his British passport expire so his kids could never drag him back to Britain "except in a box," but now he expects his free EU health benefits to be discontinued.
Maybe I'm hard-hearted, but I'd say the right solution in both cases would be to apply for citizenship in the countries these people have chosen to live in. Why blame Great Britain or Brexit? They can perfectly well go on as EU citizens if they like.
3 comments:
It does seem as if they’d be happier someplace else.
As in Screwtape, if people come to expect something, they come to feel they somehow deserve it, and are angry when it is taken away. We do it all the time with things like traffic, where we feel cheated if things do not go smoothly in a section we are used to getting through quickly.
If you're hard-hearted on this, than so am I. They made a choice to live elsewhere but not actually settle there. And now, the political landscape has changed and they are upset that their choices are no longer viable. Well, either make new choices to deal with the new reality, or else sit and stew. I'll note, only one of those two options is actually viable, as complaining about reality doesn't make reality change. And railing against the "unfairness" of things is something a child does. Adults do something about it, or if nothing can be done... get over it.
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