Sunday 15 May 2016

"Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”Euripides Was he talking about Boris Johnson ?

I heard today while coming into the clinic to write my blog that Boris Johnson had claimed

The truth is that the history of the last couple of thousand years has been broadly repeated attempts by various people or institutions -- in a Freudian way -- to rediscover the lost childhood of Europe, this golden age of peace and prosperity under the Romans, by trying to unify it,”Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically.”

Boris does not understand Freud or indeed history. If he understood History he would know that the Roman Empire was not a nation state. It was a multicultural, society that formed a basis of toleration and culture, that it laid the foundations for so much of our European history, language and culture. The nation sate is a product of the nineteenth century. There is no historical consistency that you can trace from the Roman to the European Union.
He does understand Freud ether because if he did he would see how he was projecting his fantasies onto the EU. Jung would talk about the shadow and how we see the darkness within ourselves on institutions and other individuals. Hitler like the Conservatives never won a majority of popular votes , like Ukip they blamed the migrants, the  Nazis` Jews and anyone but themselves and the nature of the system.

The truth is in at least 2 out of 3 cases we always find that those people wanting to remain in Europe are better educated, more tolerant, more perceptive, deeper thinking, younger more aware of paradox and not knowing within themselves, more tentative and less sure. They are less easily fooled, see through scapegoating, reflect more on their life experienced and have travelled more and know more about other cultures and less like to have gone to Eton.
Napoleon laid the foundations for modern Germany and Italy, he promoted learning and though he was authoritarian, promoted the ideals of the enlightenment, laid the foundation for the Romantic movement of the twentieth Century and promoted womens` equality. Too many of Boris equivalents in the 20s and 30s had a soft spot for Hitler, were anti Semitic, anti working class and anti trade union. 

If we leave Europe we will lose workers rights, we loose environmental protections and we drift closer towards a fragmented Europe f that will endanger peace and progress. I know you Boris Johnson ..I see what you are about.....I heard how you sneered at Barack Obama , when you called him “half Kenyan” I have too have been to an English prep School and I know what is said in that culture about people of other races and other classes.....I know you Boris Johnson and your ilk..........

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