Lest we forget...

If you've been reading my blog, and I can't imagine you have, hopefully you'll have found my tone jocular, possibly a little mocking, but not too severe. Sadly though, in this post I'm going to come across a little more grave.

Since the 24th of June there's been a lot of talk about what Brexit means for Britain and the British people. We've discussed how it will effect jobs, the economy, trade and travel. We've heard political wrangling and social ructions of the highest order, yet the true cost of this admittedly historic event is, I believe, yet to come.

Since the prospect of a referendum on the United Kindom's membership in the EU first arose some years ago, I've been thinking hard about what effect it might have not only at home but on a global scale. It was easy for myself and others do discard such musings as pessimism and/or scaremongering, yet now it comes to it, it seems that such considerations were somewhat near the mark. Allow me to explain.

The rise of far right sentiment in Europe now seems inescapable. A rise in racially motivated attacks has already been documented in Britain and across this peaceful continent, political parties are already calling for their own referenda. One would be naive in the extreme to suggest that such polls would be unlikely to result in a similar increase in racist attacks elsewhere.

Yet though these events are contemptible in themselves, it is their very emergence which is of the greatest concern. The modern United Kingdom is built on our history. That history, above all else, prides itself on the ejection of the far right from Europe. The most nationalistic Brit will be the first to glow with pride during any discussion of the First and Second World War. We get all weepy eyed when we think of our brave lads, out on the continent, fighting through mud, pain and death to liberate our neighbours from the evil clutches of the fascists. Each of us has a deep seated passion for what we did in those years, yet all of a sudden those far right sentiments are erupting here, of all places. If the far right can surge in influence here, who knows how forceful it may be in its resurgence elsewhere?

On Rememberance Sunday every November, millions of small paper poppies are distributed throughout the land. On each box of poppies, and with every publication, poster and pamphlet comes the same three words which each of us knows by heart: "Lest We Forget".

Perhaps we are becoming desensitised to it, or perhaps we misunderstand its meaning, but forgetting is precisely what we appear to be doing. The war that ravaged the entire world, killing over 60 million people and ultimately resulted in the unleashing of the most barbaric force known to humanity, the atomic bomb, was precipitated by the emergence of the far right in Germany.

Now I know what many people are thinking, that this would never happen here. They suspect that, whilst Farage and UKIP might be going a bit too far, the kind of politics that's emerging at the moment is simply about protecting ourselves and our ways of life. Yet I saw an internet meme today which brought it home to me:

Enough said. Credit: Unknown

Now, by no means am I suggesting that leave voters are guilty of supporting the far right. Of course not, I'm not a complete arse. However, it is the endorsement of the far right which, complicit or not, is the result of the British secession from the EU. We are declaring ourselves different, superior somehow, and it is this which enables the kind of vile thinking for which the far right is so recognisable. Again, I'm not suggesting that Brexit voters caused this thinking, but the event itself is giving credence to it unknowingly.

When I was younger, my uncle was a graphic designer working on a holocaust exhibition in a museum. I must have been eleven or twelve, I don't really recall. What I do remember was a pile of shoes which mimicked one such arrangement found at Auschwitz.

If you don't understand the sheer gravity of this image, find out. [source]

Make no mistake, I am not abusing this image or the poor individuals, the fathers, mothers, daughters and sons who died to create it. They died after the most appalling of treatment which should never have been permitted to take place, ever. I use this image because it reminds us what can happen when we do not consider our actions, when we think 'it can't be that bad' or 'it would never happen here'. There is a long way to go before we find such repugnant occurrences here, but we would be foolish to think that it cannot happen. "Lest We Forget" refers not only to the millions who died, but the events which led inexorably to those deaths.

So I make no apology for the vehemence with which I defend my opinions on Brexit. If you expect me to hold my tongue, to keep quiet for the sake of decency or politics, you are to be disappointed. I make no apology for the flood of information I'm pouring out onto the internet, for the passion with which I talk about this issue and the anger and frustration I exhibit when challenged upon it. Do not expect me to 'let it go' or simply 'make the best of it'. My opinions and my convictions are not political, they are not self-interested and they are not a product of fashion, rather they are born of a deep seated sense that we must not allow the kind of behaviour which leads to such events to be propagated.

You are welcome to call me a scaremonger, to shrug this off as mountains and molehills, but think rationally for a moment. If we do our best to fight such extremism and are found to be over acting, then what have we lost? Yet if we are negligent, what then is the cost, to us and to the whole world?

Lest we forget indeed.