There was an observation offered in the final, fictional election campaign on The West Wing: “People think an election is a contest about two different answers to the same question. It’s not. It’s a contest over what the question is.” The Brexit vote did not fit this paradigm.…
The Greeks posited there was a five-point political spectrum, originating in anarchy, advancing to democracy, finding its apex in the republic, then lapsing into oligarchy, and degenerating into tyranny. The Brexit campaign — which only began with the referendum — is a contest in which each faction corresponds to a point on…
This was an election about psychology, because, as so often happens in the U.S., people voted against their own interests. You have to ask, what siren song, or magnificent mirage, are they turning toward? And who is supplying the opiates that fuel their absorption in this sinister fantasy? It…
England seems not to have undergone the epiphany that transformed Europe after the war, in the initial stages of reconstruction, when the various governments, all faced with the same task, of clothing, housing, and employing populations devastated by conflict, mobilised the bureaucracies that had previously directed wartime operations, to campaign…
Fights between countries and cultures are like fights between married couples: you are never fighting over only what you are driven to dispute. While good communication can avert a blow-out, when one does occur, a simple lapse in communication cannot account for the vehemence of the emotions involved. There is…
I found one article about British economics – if that is the accurate word – particularly à propos. Published by theIndependent, the title is, “U.K. is most corrupt country in the world, says Mafia expert Roberto Saviano.” The link is here: ( http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/roberto-saviano-britain-corrupt-mafia-hay-festival-a7054851.html…
One of the most astonishing things to me in London is the plaque outside the Russell School in Richmond, next door to the Deutsche Schule of London, where my son is in kindergarten. The plaque commemorates an incident that occurred during the war: “The Russell School in Petersham was founded…
Dean Acheson, an American Secretary of State who served under President Truman, observed in 1962, “Great Britain has lost an Empire, but not yet found a role.” For the word “role,” substitute the term, “vocation,” and you may have something closer to the truth. This is not to say that…