Europe: A healing space
Oliver Robertson writes about the referendum, fear, hope and healing
The one thing we can say with certainty about the EU referendum is that there will be a lot of unhappy people waking up on 24 June. It may be that one of the most helpful things the Quakers for Europe informal group does after the event is to provide a space for sharing, reflecting and, for some, mourning the result. A gathering is planned at Reading Meeting House for 25 June – the day after the results are announced – and all are welcome for conversation and worship.
The country as a whole will not have such spaces ready-made and creating these may be a healing role that Quakers can provide – because, make no mistake, the fault lines and divisions exposed (and sometimes exacerbated) by the referendum will not go away, whatever the result. There will still be people who feel let down, left behind, stamped on or ignored by the current system. Dissatisfaction with the status quo across the western world is a well-trodden theme, but a simple (simplistic) alternative referendum question might be: ‘Are things fundamentally okay or not okay?’ and for millions the answer is ‘not okay’.
This is probably the biggest sociopolitical issue for democratic nations today, because it can influence so much else. There are people who feel profoundly insecure in the world as it is now, and it is extremely tempting in such situations to revert to what is familiar and to flock to those who say they can (easily) make it all okay again. This is what populism is: saying things because people want to hear them rather than because of their reality.
Populism can be closely aligned to what, I feel, is the most worrying trend in the referendum. This is the rise of what some have called ‘post-truth politics’, but might better be described as winning at all costs. It is the kind of politics which says that no point can be allowed to stand unchallenged, no admission that the other side has any merit and that it is fine to say things that advance your cause regardless of whether they are the truth or lies. It prevents a discussion from taking place and turns all public debate into a shouting match. In such a situation, many people stop listening to the shouting and fall back on what they already think and feel. This ‘scorched earth’ approach to politics is extremely effective in the short term, and highly corrosive in the long term as it breeds cynicism and destroys trust.
What is the antidote to cynicism? I say hope. Among the few undecided voters I spoke to during the referendum campaign, the most common request was ‘tell me a positive reason you’re wanting to stay in’. Perhaps my reasons (that I prefer being together with others rather than emphasise our differences, and the role of the EU in maintaining peace in a continent riven by war for centuries) didn’t speak to them, but I trust it was more uplifting than ‘I’ll have more money if we stay’.
Hope is intrinsically more attractive than fear, even if fear may often win out. The weeks ahead will be dark and hopeless for many, whichever way the result goes; it may be that what we are called on to do first is stand alongside our grieving neighbours, whoever they are, in Britain and elsewhere in Europe. Then, when tears have dried, we can together take stock of where we are and look for the next step in our endeavours to mend our country, continent and world.
Oliver is clerk of the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA).
The Quakers for Europe event is at Reading Meeting house on Saturday 25 June from 11am.
Comments
Please login to add a comment
