There are conspiracy theorists who would believe that Brexit is in fact a foreign-backed project designed to destroy Britain (historically, in a similar manner to how Lenin was sneaked into Tsarist Russia by Germany). This blogger has discussed this theory before. Over the pond, some hold fears that Donald Trump is in fact some kind of Russian "agent", so it not surprising that similar theories are expounded about Brexit in the UK.
A more realistic worry is about the effect Brexit has had on the psychology of its people in general and its politicians in particular.
Historically, Brexit was the pet project of right-wing cranks and left-wing anti-capitalist ideologues. The first of these can be further broke down into two hard-right camps: the Libertarian ideologues who saw Brexit as method of economic creative destruction, and the more traditional nationalists who barely disguised the overt racism at the heart of their reactionary conservatism. On the other ideological extreme there were the left-wing anti-capitalists, who back in the original EU referendum in the 1970s, teamed up with the reactionary conservatives to campaign to get the UK out of the EEC. The Libertarians who are among Brexit's most fervent supporters today in the earlier generation originally campaigned with Thatcher to keep Britain in the EEC as they saw it as a free-market opportunity. Their flip to the side of Brexit came after they felt "betrayed" by the EU's (always transparent) longer-term integration and development into a regulatory institution.
What these three ideological groups share is a wider, more esoteric perception of Brexit. Brought to the modern day, these three ideological groups see Brexit as a force that enables wider structural (and even moral) change; Brexit is seen by each of these groups as a "means to an end". In this way, as I talked about in a previous post on this subject, Brexit acts as a kind of "talisman" - a symbol of unusual power and energy.
To be clear, I'm talking about its symbolic power. "Brexit" is an idea that is being used by the three ideological groups - Libertarians, reactionaries and anti-capitalists - to further their own aims. Brexit is their weapon of choice; the "talisman" that can be wielded symbolically to transform Britain (and even the wider world) into a landscape of their choosing.
Britain as an ideological "Ground Zero"
Libertarians ideally want to use Brexit to turn Britain into a kind of free-market laboratory. This is why they are perfectly frank about their willingness to see post-Brexit Britain unilaterally reduce its tariffs to zero; an idea that to anyone with a brain would see as economic insanity.
More widely, their method of "creative destruction" would remove regulations and workers' rights on a mass scale, and would be indifferent to the future of British industries. In their view, Britain's future would lie largely in financial services, with a stripped-out state and a native population left to mainly fend for itself.
Seen like this, Britain would more widely become a strategic threat to the EU, acting as a predator on Europe's doorstep, seeking to implicitly (and more openly) undermine the integrity of the EU, which Libertarian Britain would see as a "project" that ideologically had to be destroyed to prevent any of Britain's own population trying to turn back the clock on the Libertarians' domestic agenda. Indeed, the Libertarian agenda has been about destroying the EU as an institution for decades, as part of its wider aim to promote chaos.
This is the kind of "creative destruction" that is talked about when applied wholesale. Spreading and exploiting economic chaos elsewhere would then become Libertarian Britain's path to economic mastery. It has been done before. Thus, Britain would be seen as an ideological "agent of chaos" to the wider world (much as how Russia is now seen by many in the West): like the Bolsheviks of a hundred years ago, trying to spread the ideology of their "revolution" far and wide for their own benefit.
In a more symbolic sense, this Libertarian vision of post-Brexit Britain is of an island-nation that would, to the outside world, appear as a centre of global economic instability: a regime whose primary purpose is morally anarchic and economically exploitative. In other words, a "force of darkness" to the world.
Meanwhile, the ultimate aim of the right-wing reactionaries seems to use Brexit to "turn back the clock". In their esoteric perception of Brexit, it is about restoring cultural (and racial) homogeneity. They see Britain as a culturally-superior nation that has lost its identity and sense of self-belief. Brexit becomes a "White Power" fantasy, where Britain regains its exulted status as a "sceptred isle" that has a special role in the world. Intoxicated by their own rhetoric, they believe the British people are destined to reclaim their place, purified from "cosmopolitan" European influence and cleansed of the immigrant stain. When all the more technical reasons are stripped away, for these people it is really just wanting to "Make Britain White Again".
As James O'Brien demonstrates with this clip from the radio show LBC, the only thing that these kind of people really care about is "too many foreigners" in Britain. Brexit, for them, is their method of restoring Britain's cultural identity, with the overt implication that the restoration of Britain's prestige in the world will soon follow.
The blatant xenophobia comes from seeing Britain as an "island race". Japan had its own period of hateful racism after the Great Depression, and when you hear the way the "gammon" types talk, you do wonder how far down that moral black hole the country could go, if the circumstances turn a particular way. Only the most complacent (or arrogant) individual could think that their particular country is immune from such behaviour; and such complacency and arrogance would in fact make that kind of behaviour more likely to happen, as the government's "hostile environment" has shown. Since the referendum racism has become more brazenly expressed, with many seeming to think that Brexit allows them to indulge their prejudice and hatred on anyone who looks foreign or speaks a foreign language. Racism is an obvious example of how Brexit has brought out the worst in people, with this portending for potentially even worse treatment of the "other" when people look for a scapegoat to blame. Britain could turn into a deeply ugly place to live.
The wider agenda of these reactionaries is "Empire 2.0", but as a thought experiment, how could that pan out hypothetically? If the "gammon" types within the Conservative Party itself gain greater sway after Brexit, it's not hard to see Britain humiliating itself on the world stage, either strategically or - at the more extreme end of things - militarily. Some of the idiotic bluster from recent government personalities has meant that the more extreme scenarios can't be seen as all that far-fetched.
It seems that the "gammon" fantasy is of Britain somehow gaining leverage over the former "white dominions" as well as preferential treatment from its former Asiatic colonies. Closer to home, it's not hard to see reactionaries also fantasizing about "putting Ireland in its place", regardless of its EU membership or close ties to the USA. Britain's military budget would have to be seriously indulged for any of these imperialist schoolboy fantasies to come to fruition.
As said earlier, this can only end in complete humiliation, as all nationalist rhetoric eventually does; which is why the hard-left anti-capitalists are all in favour of it...
The hard-left anti-capitalists see Brexit through the "long game": they want the Tory right to "own" any Brexit that follows, as they see this as their best path to power. If the Libertarians don't destroy Britain from within through their anti-social ideology, then the hard-right reactionaries will make Britain self-destruct through some strategic humiliation; this is the reasoning that the anti-capitalists have.
In these circumstances, the hard-left fantasize their victory in the chaos that follows. Then they will be able to implement "Socialism in one country", and turn Britain into a socialist experiment fit for the 21st century. In a similar manner to the Libertarians' wider ideological agenda, the hard left would seek to undermine the EU's integrity. Quite what the EU would think of Britain at this point (after period of disruptive Libertarian/nationalist scheming) is hard to say. It would, without doubt, become Britain's most disruptive political period since the Civil War. In terms of its wider impact on the world, it could well be even more disruptive than on Britain itself. The EU would have had to deal with two "hostile regimes" in Britain following each other, but from opposite ideological standpoints.
The wider anti-capitalist agenda would be both to disrupt the actions of the EU as well as the USA, while allying with regimes sympathetic to their cause (Russia, say). Heaven knows where that would leave things. The symbolism of this anti-capitalist agenda could also be argued to have global ambitions, where anti-capitalist Britain would act as the primary instigator to bring about wider structural change in the world; exploiting Britain's strategic position to effect a universal social realignment. That is the anti-capitalists' ultimate fantasy.
A case could even be made that, following a "no deal" scenario (which is still likely at this point), all three of the scenarios could occur consecutively. For instance, a "no deal" scenario leads to the Libertarian agenda holding sway; this leads to widespread disruption and poverty; to distract from the government-caused poverty, nationalism is exploited to distract the poor from the government's actions; this leads to nationalist-fueled hysteria and eventual strategic humiliation; the government falls and is replaced by anti-capitalists.
"Its only power is to corrupt and destroy"
Those thought experiments aside, what is clear from the above scenarios is how Brexit is innately destructive. There is no scenario where Brexit does not lead to some form of social disintegration or economic decline. Brexit's only power is to corrupt and destroy.
Those who have been sucked under its influence have destroyed the positive image that Britain had to outsiders. Where once Britain was held up as a paragon of stability and moderation, now Brexit had turned the country into one under the control of ideological fanatics, who have abandoned the moral code that the country once once held up for.
Brexit's fanatics don't care what damage they do to other people's lives. They don't care what damage it does to the British economy. They don't care if people lose their rights, their jobs, or even if it puts people's lives at risk. They only care that their aim is fulfilled, regardless of the cost. In this sense, Brexit has turned its fanatical advocates into virtual sociopaths, indifferent to the suffering they might cause to others.
It is this particular aspect of Brexit that has brought out the worst in human nature: making people not only unmoved by the chaos they might cause, they justify it and even revel in its potential, as this is the only way they can realize their twisted fantasy. It is a moral sickness.
For this reason, it is Brexit's "dark powers" that lend some sympathy to conspiracy theorists' beliefs that it is something that could only have been created by Britain's enemies. Something that has the power to create such chaos in the country could surely only be planned by those who wish to do Britain harm?
Alas, the truth seems to be more disturbing: "Brexit" may well have been an "unnamed monster" that was hiding under the surface of society for a long time, shapeless and invisible, lacking tangible form for its lack of appellation. Brexit is just the instrument of the many seething social demons that were there for decades. For those that had long felt that "something was wrong" with Britain but could never properly articulate it, Brexit provided an answer. Like all forms of chaos, all it needed was the right set of circumstances to emerge.
To its advocates, Brexit's power allows them to believe in irrational fantasies, detached from reality. It encouraged them to believe that they could suspend disbelief and think that both everything could change and nothing would change. Its primary purpose, in this sense, is to drive people mad.
Apart from clouding people's judgement, the Brexit "talisman" sows chaos between people. As a corrupting source of power, it is feeding people with irrational fantasies, leading to persecution paranoia. Libertarians, reactionaries and anti-capitalists all believe that Britain is being "exploited" by the EU, and that each of their own fantasies can be attained by Brexit. Equally, they believe that those who are trying to make them see sense and save the country from harm are trying to "betray" them, leading to even rational people lose their sense of perspective when confronted by such hysteria. In this way, it cleaves society in two, with those corrupted by Brexit's power acting as though under a delirious form of mass hypnosis in an ideological battle with those vainly trying to shake them out of it.
At the same time, Brexit has a "shape-shifting" quality. As it appeals to people with very different ideological motivations, its amorphous ability to offer answers almost regardless of someone's background feels almost diabolical in its appeal. Brexit can mean almost anything; and in the referendum it was clear that Brexit was made to mean whatever you wanted it to mean. Almost anyone could potentially support it, because people could be made to believe that it had an answer to their problems. As it appealed to anyone who felt that there was something "wrong" with Britain, it indulged the fantasies you had about how you wanted Britain to change; and providing a scapegoat in "Europe".
In spite of all this, Brexit is just an idea. Its qualities as a "talisman" were exploited by those who saw in it a method to achieve their aims, such as Theresa May after the referendum, while conversely it confounded those who used conventional (and reasonable) means to frustrate it. Thus its opponents became doubly confounded: after being unable to prevent using conventional means (in the political process), in resorting to more direct methods (such as protests) it made Brexit's opponents look like the irrational side.
For Brexit's other power is to make black seem as white. People wanting to prevent Britain from carrying out economic suicide were branded as "traitors"; people wanting parliament to have a greater say were branded as "undemocratic". Apart from driving Brexit's own supporters mad, Brexit would also drive its opponents mad as well; the only difference was the manner of the madness. Its irrational supporters were made to look rational, while its rational opponents were made to look irrational.
Something very strange has happened in Britain, and its hard to know how (or when) it will end.
