So Britain is out.
Woo-hoo! Doesn’t that feel good?
Well, in fact, for some folks it does. In particular, if you’re an unempowered bloke, lacking much personal sense of agency, and you’ve watched your world get whittled down bit by bit over the last several decades, the sense of doing something, anything – the sheer joy of authoring some real wreckage – is tasty. And all the more so because of its rarity. It’s been so long since you got to poke some joker in the eye, who cares who it is or what comes next, eh? Just do it.
Whatever the motivation, this is a milestone. The direct consequences of the British referendum vote are likely to be substantial, if not profound. But it is the indirect consequences, and the symbolic import, that are most significant. For this is, make no mistake, the first but likely not the last major manifestation of a long-brewing discontent that threatens nothing less than the unraveling of a post-war world order of (mostly) peace and prosperity.