The Island Mentality

This blog post was prompted by the recent debates between Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK.  The two debates were addressing the old chestnut of whether the UK should remain part of, or withdraw from, the European Union.  The pro-EU argument was put forward by Nick Clegg and the counter argument by Nigel Farage - a Europhile versus a Eurosceptic.  Now I don't know how you judge who wins an exchange of views of this type but a poll conducted by YouGov after the second debate, suggested a clear victory for Nigel Farage, 68% to 27%, in terms of who put forward the best case.  So is that it?  Is the UK population making it quite clear that it wants to withdraw from the European Union?  I doubt the two debates made any difference to public opinion because we are seeing a battle of logic versus emotion, with the latter winning.

Although I was born and bred in the UK, I have been fortunate to visit all but one of the seven continents of the world.  The one I have missed out on so far is Antarctica.  My travels have been for business and pleasure and since leaving the cut-and-thrust of international business development, I now reside in Turkey.  So although I am a British citizen and proud to be so, I do feel more able to take a more objective view of the independence debate than, say, a 'Little Englander' with scant knowledge of life outside the British Isles.  For as long as I have lived in, and viewed from afar, the UK, there has always been, in my opinion, a very strong 'Island Mentality'.  To provide a full analysis in such a short blog post is impossible, but suffice to say, it is fuelled by historic world dominance and for many the reality of today's much weaker global position has not sunk in.

Great Britain is no longer Great and what's more, the United Kingdom is not United.  The Kingdom does regrettably still exist and in my opinion, the feudal monarchy adds another impediment to the nation being able to shake-off its illusions of grandeur.  The island mentality goes beyond the desire by many for an independent UK.  The country of Ireland, apart from the northern bit, got rid of its shackles with Britain a century ago and in September of this year, Scotland will decide by referendum if it wants to leave the UK.

So the 'logic' of 'smaller is better' is endemic within the British psyche.  How far should we extend this 'logic'?  Most of the UK's GDP is generated in London and the Home Counties.  So perhaps the South East of England would be better off as an independent state!  Or maybe each citizen should be totally independent!!  I find it useful to test arguments by examining mental models of the extremes and in my mind, the extreme independence model doesn't hold water.  Why?  Because we live in an interconnected and interdependent world but it seems to me that Britain, as well as many other 'cultural islands' in the world, have difficulty recognising how interdependent we all are are and, in my opinion, have to be.  We are all world citizens sharing a planet, which has been divided up by our ancestors into territories, many of which have little relevance to today's issues and indeed in many cases are a hindrance to solving our pressing global problems.  But how do you shake-off the island mentality?  Well you certainly can't do it by radio and TV debates.  I had hoped that the younger generation, who experience global interconnectivity through the Internet, and have never known anything different, would be a catalyst for change.  There is anecdotal evidence, however, that most young Brits are firmly in the independence camp, although polls suggest that 16 and 17-year-olds, eligible to vote in the Scottish referendum are more inclined to vote against independence.

So let's see how it goes.  It doesn't matter how we decide to organise the human species on the planet, the real crunchy issues won't go away and we are in danger of just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.