The Apple Cart Dilemma
The many views I have read on the referendum question to date have been pitched according to authors’ own and rather selfish perspectives, with cases often restricted only to economics, sovereignty or the movement of people. If an institution had a vote, its income might be the only factor considered in its decision, even though the humans in its buildings have a full spectrum of needs and values. Many writers also deliberately substitute opposing the EU (a political configuration) with opposing Europe (a piece of land) or opposing Europeans (the population on that land) to influence your decision, but it is not a contradiction to like the land and people but oppose a political structure. I am also fully aware that flags and borders are artificial constructs, as are our laws and ethical principles. However, I have not heard from people, like myself, who have very conflicted decisions to make in this referendum, with serious implications where the head might win and the heart would be crushed.
The first side of my story is an intellectual fear which suggests ‘leave’. If I asked colleagues if they would prefer to live under a democracy or a tyranny, it is probable that they would choose democracy, although nostalgic Athenians might be in two minds, and yet the UK’s highest form of law-making government is completely unelected (The European Commission) and the President of the EU is chosen only by people already receiving their income from the EU. To be fair, both constructs can be said to represent everyone who voted for them. Being inhumanly systematic and objective for a moment, I can also see that it is much easier and more efficient to rule over 500 million people if you can ignore majority opinion without consequence, if you can dispense with election campaigns, if your new laws are automatically approved by your clan and if there is no mechanism for expelling you, i.e. democracy is hard to manage at the largest scale. However, without it, the question then becomes ‘By what right do you rule us?’ So, the system incorporates an element of democracy further down the ladder, designed to draw attention away from the unelected nature of the ruling cabal and to ensure that their legitimacy is not challenged.
Some non-European administrations, for example that of the US, have asked us to stay in. If you turn that request around, it appears absurd: “We would like you to give up democracy and instead be ruled by an unelected foreign government and a president for whom you can’t vote because that would suit us, not you.” They’d laugh but it’s not a comedy. In the words of Monty Python, “This is happening Reg. This is actually happening.” This referendum will be the final consultation. After that, with a ‘Remain’ majority, the door will lock, public opinion becomes irrelevant, democracy will be an illusion and we will be as easy to manage as livestock. Their law will be used to tighten control.
My story has a cruel twist though, an ironic human factor which implores ‘Remain’. Although I am a British subject and we have a British child, I am married to an EU citizen who lives here by exercising EU treaty rights and neither of us meets the current criteria for residency in each other’s country without these rights in place. As we are in this together, by voting to leave I would invite my own and my family’s banishment from the United Kingdom and a life as immigrants in any country that would take us in. We are not alone, as If Scotland were to leave the UK as a consequence of this referendum, the same point would break or exile many cross-border families. A ‘Leave’ result will kick over my apple cart, so the test for genuine loyalty turns out to be personal sacrifice after all.
My choice is not the same as yours. My choice is whether I can be sea-green incorruptible and vote ‘leave’ to restore democracy, independence and ultimately freedom to over 60 million people for generations to come or, instead, to waver in my resolve and condemn them, just people I have never met, and vote ‘remain’ to protect the daily imperative, my little world of family.
Adam Corres
Adam Corres is a Faculty Administration Officer at Life Sciences with a background in writing for publication and the media.
