from Ireland and India both in different ways victims of English post-collonial delusion. The fact that Ireland
barely featured in the refferndum campaign and yet is now threatening to de-rail the whole process is indicative of the persistance of the post
imperial cataract that continues to obscure England's vision of itself and others.
There has been one writer that I have found useful (English this time) Anthony Barnett whose Lure of Greatness sees Brexit as
a crisis arising not simply from the UK but as an English malady, founded on a large hole in the heart of the ‘English’ national identity now that the
other so called 'home nations’ have their own assemblies. Their flags are not associated with racist gangs in the way that the flag of St George is.
They have been able articulate a different conception of national identity.. A reasonable substitute for reading his book is this Youtube lecture..
curious what people think.
Finaly its a pity all these thinkers I am referencing are men.. How much of these neo-nationalist pathologies are man made…?
Best
David
On 18 Jan 2019, at 10:36, Keith Hart <keith@thememorybank.co.uk> wrote:
>...a brilliant and utterly coruscating essay published in the NY Times by Pankaj Mishra a writer and polemicist from India who situates the crisis in English post-colonial delusion <Thanks, David. You are right that Brexit is the UK's post-imperial hangover come home to roost. Have spent my adult life waiting for Brits to wake up in this regard and I am not convinced that even this will do the job. In the early twentieth century, the strongest political and intellectual opposition to the Empire came from Ireland, India and South Africa and the first two are still the best source. Apart from Pankaj Mishra, Fintan O'Toole is keeping up the good work with his book, Heroic Failure: Brexit and the politics of pain. Ireland is noted for its literary Nobel prize-winners and he is well up to standard. His latest article came out today: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/18/europe-brexit-britain-state-politics-fit-for-purposeO'Toole's point -- that Brexit was never about Europe, but rather about the home political dispensation -- is one that I have been making for two decades. I call it the creeping constitutional crisis of the cruel historical experiment, the United Kingdom. I wrote "Where once was an empire" soon after the 2016 referendum result: https://www.academia.edu/29662300/Where_once_was_an_empire_on_Brexit_Best,Keith# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
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