Chopping down stinging-nettles may feel good, but for how long?
In Ecological Succession different founder species form different types of transient habitats towards a "climax community" eg from a grass clearing over time developing via stages into a mature forest. This of course is what is going on when from the point of view of gardeners "weeds" such as stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) establish on a lawn or in a garden and grow. They're easy to chop down, but as anyone knows who's had to clear large bushes of them, they quickly (rapidly!) grow back. Hence some digging finds a complex matt of root systems from which at any point new nettle-stems can grow back from. It's effectively an example of the "roots vs shoots" problem or "root cause". The effort to dug up the root system is considerably more, however it does resolve the problem of permanently removing the stinging nettles from that particular patch of ground.
EU Referendum: The Rule of 2
In Eurosceptic "Amnesia" vs Brexiteer "Total Memory Recall" the importance or input of memory was considered in our arguments. This follows from the observation made in Literature And Science about future qualitative inferences that shape our expectations of future results compared to post-hoc quantitative deductions which can then feedback into our next future decisions. In Understanding The Mountains of Madness we saw how the argument as per the Electoral Commission's Referendum Question:-
The argument simplified to it's essence
Is not so much shaped as above, but as:-
- Pro-EU Status Quo which is observed to be not working very well.
- Anti-EU extremism which is considered unsafe and possibly unsound.
(1) Design for EU, 1947: "No government dependent on a democratic vote could possibly agree in advance to the sacrifice that any adequate plan must involve. The British people must be led slowly and unconcsiously into the abandonment of their traditonal economic defences..." ~ Peter Thorneycroft, later Chancellor of the Exchequer and Chairman of the Conservative Party.(2) What Germany Means by "Integration": "Does free Europe want to join Germany? Germany is the heart of Europe and the limbs must adjust themselves to the heart, not the heart to the limbs." ~ HANS SEEBOHM, Minister of Commerce in Dr. Adenauer's Government 1950.(3) "In this challenging time we are naturally encountering difficulties. They are the birth pangs attending the creation of a United States of Europe." ~ Jean Monnet (The father of the EU) April 30 1952, addressing the Washing Press Club on the European Coal and Steel Community.
Common Market Referendum - MP Nigel Spearing was there - The country was Duped!
You can compare and contrast with Edward Heath's quotes here in a timeline:-
I would argue the above are "the roots" of the EU Referendum argument. Mostly hidden in the sands of history. And hence we see a pattern emerging:-
- 2-Speed EU: Periphery and Core
- 2-Stage Referendum Process
- 2-Extremes on the political spectrum where a Middle Way is manufactured above.
- 2 actual arguments: The Government-EU Argument (Top) and the Government-People Argument (Down) (which will be attempted to be neglected).
In fact far from Brexit causing the UK/Britain to collapse... it's the very reverse proposition that worries "the powers that be" and well-spoken by Xavier Rolet in the above too: The consequences for uncertainty on the EU/EUROZONE, itself. For this reason, this argument cannot accept the primacy of the "ultimate frame of reference itself: Time and History" to our arguments and hence what must happen as their objective and therefore as the visible public argument leading up to our Referendum is their argument: Chopping down stinging nettles not removing their roots. This is backed up again in Conservative Home piece attempting to persuade via the political angle: Nadhim Zahawi MP: Our best future in Europe would be a multi-speed EU – not the divorce that would be worse for everyone .
Surely it seems reasonable to help the EU/EZ as Europe affects us either way we vote? There's nothing unreasonable in suggesting this. However, we have to consider our choices a little more deeply... to bring up from The Campaign For An Independent Britain (see blogroll)
We can witness how deep the seeds of deception have gone into our national identity, attacking it and further as per again the latest booklet from The Campaign For An Independent Britain (CIB):-
Generations Betrayed: Cutting the roots of our National Identity (in education)
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
~ George Orwell.
The great problem we as a people face is with arguments which do not actually engage with our own arguments as per democracy but seek to attack and undermine our identity and hence the abuse of power by our own government, our own ruling institutions that underpin democracy we see as per the warning from The Road To The European Union directly applicable to us! When we make a choice we are representing ourselves, our identity, what we value and what we work towards. All those assumptions that help us form a successful nation are undermined when we don't act in accordance with them, when we fail to remember them and fall for the persuasive arguments as per Eurosceptic "Amnesia" vs Brexiteer "Total Memory Recall" .
The above "mocked-up ballot paper" may seem extremely tendentious, but what I think it symbolizes is not to worry about all these exterior postulations from David Cameron who is "a prisoner of his own making" (just count the number of lies he's made and the continuation of The Great Deception under all our Prime Ministers); it's to remember to count on our own interior understanding of our place in the world; draw on our own roots which if we keep healthy like those pesky stinging nettles will grow back out of the ashes of The Great Deception: It's those roots we must look after, not the ever-changing political weather of the day.
