On the 24th of June, Brits woke up and looked at each other stunned—with devastation or jubilation; the pound dove off the top of a rollercoaster; European ministers bristled at the insult of Brexit; and the rest of the world went, “Oh f**k. WHAT does this mean?”

Conversations within 11&more ran the emotional gauntlet. In general our group was strongly in favor of Remain. And in the minutes, hours and weeks following the vote, our discussions capture the evolution of our collective psyche as people came to terms with what happened. We’re sharing this not to bash the Leave camp, simply to reflect on our shared experience.

1. The initial shock

Ahalya (British/American/Indian, based in Berkeley): Oh my god, they voted for Brexit. I can’t believe it.

Serena (Hongkonger, lived in the US for 12 years): Just saw… Next up, trump 🙁

Stephanie (British/Hong Kong, based in London): A petition has begun which you can sign https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215/signatures/new.

Sophie (British, based in Switzerland): People here have been wishing me condolences. FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Four hours later…

Nicole (American, based in California): DAVID CAMERON FUCKING RESIGNED. Scotland calling for another leave referendum and Sinn Fein calling for unification with Ireland? The UK is so fucked.

Anna (Georgian, based in London): I think everything will be more or less fine in long run, as long as Boris or UKIP don’t become PM. British pragmatism has to take over now.

Nicole: Spain calling for joint sovereignty over Gibraltar and already an admittance that the Leave campaign was lying? Yeah. This is going to have economics ramifications for at least a decade. Political ones for perhaps longer.

Stephanie: I cannot believe Cameron turned a Conservative Party problem into a UK problem. With other right wing parties in the EU calling for similar votes it’s imperative for the EU to makes exit costly to the UK.

2. Fear of what’s next

Monica (Filipina, based in London): People will lose their jobs, European and a world recession will follow. This is now about keeping ones job, and trying to hold on to what one has now as everyone in the UK is going to lose something. To all my US friends, Asian and EU friends. Stay where you are.

Zi (Chinese American, based in New York): The political impact of what the other countries (Germany, France, etc.) will do as well as Trump potentially being our next president is what gives me goosebumps. I have underestimated the power fear can play in people’s actions. Also young voters need to go out and vote.

Sophie: You’re so right Zi. Turkish, French, Belgian politicians already calling for the same divisiveness. Scotland will leave UK. Ireland is going to be more volatile than ever.

Jia Jia (Chinese British, based in New York): Donald Trump on the vote: “This is a great thing. They voted to take back their country.” I guess he and UKIP are really aligned. Which is my main fear from this result. Because people’s disillusionment with “the system” is so easily channeled into anger and xenophobia. The EU has become the other that we blame for every problem; voting out might feel like a powerful eff you to the establishment, but it won’t resolve systemic problems of a massively capitalist globalized world.

Stephanie:

3. Anger at how it all happened

Jia Jia: Just looked at the vote broken down by age and it makes me angry that younger people were screwed over. We have to live with the consequences of something we didn’t vote for.

Nicole: With the pound holding to what it was last night against the dollar, I seriously cringe to think about what the global market is going to do. I heard that someone is estimating a global recession at 50%. So, flip a coin.

I also am not surprised nor do I blame the EU for basically telling the UK that their stuff is already on the lawn. Did the leaders of the Leave movement really think that the EU was going to make this as easy and painless for them as possible? The EU no longer owes the UK shit and any hope that the UK was going to end up with a favorable EU trade agreement on the UK’s terms are likely gone. The EU will set the terms and the UK will dive to comply because the other option is an economic nightmare.

Jia Jia: I think that Britain’s current political chaos finally does justice to the phrase “shit show.” The headlines are so laughable right now. Metro’s printing, “The lights are on but nobody’s home.” The PM has resigned. Boris has stepped aside. Gove’s backstabbed Boris. Labour’s top ministers are resigning left and right. Nicola Sturgeon’s having emergency talks with the EU. 3 million viewers have signed a petition calling for a second referendum. Brussels wants a quick exit for the UK but Leave leaders want to take their time. And the pound is in freefall.

I’m pretty flabbergasted by the Leave camp’s utter lack of a plan The ugly reality of political opportunism is hard to hide.

Ahalya: I really liked Tony Blair’s op-ed on the fallout, especially his line about the addiction to simplistic answers to complex problems. That is the issue in the U.S. currently as well and it’s dangerous because it provokes anger and stops us from working together to find solutions.

“The political center has lost its power to persuade and its essential means of connection to the people it seeks to represent. Instead, we are seeing a convergence of the far left and far right. The right attacks immigrants while the left rails at bankers, but the spirit of insurgency, the venting of anger at those in power and the addiction to simple, demagogic answers to complex problems are the same for both extremes. Underlying it all is a shared hostility to globalization.”

4. Acceptance that we have to get on with it

Helen (British, based in London): Robin Lustig’s post (written before Cameron resigned) captures what has happened here well. He writes:

“It was nasty, brutish and long, and now it’s over.

“My overwhelming emotion is of sadness.

“Not just because the referendum result is not the one I wanted, but because for the next several years, British politics will be dominated by endless negotiations, rows and crises over how to recalibrate our relationship with our neighbours. And because as our economy sinks back into stagnation, our major trading partners will themselves descend into political and economic turmoil. If you thought the referendum campaign was ugly, you ain’t seen nothing yet…

“But what saddens me most of all is that many of the people who voted Leave yesterday will be the ones who suffer most as a result of their decision. The foreigners who they believe have taken their jobs and houses will not suddenly be deported; the over-crowded schools and GPs’ surgeries will not suddenly empty; the out-of-touch elites whom they blame for their misfortunes will not suddenly hand over power to people’s tribunes.”

Sophie: I love this article you have shared. This is so true, and I really have nothing to add. My only hope right now is that I can do everything in my power to reject this divisiveness.

Helen: Great to hear this from mayor Sadiq Khan:

“I want to send a clear message to every European resident living in London – you are very welcome here. As a city, we are grateful for the enormous contribution you make, and that will not change as a result of this referendum.

“There are nearly one million European citizens living in London today, and they bring huge benefits to our city—working hard, paying taxes, working in our public services and contributing to our civic and cultural life.

“We all have a responsibility to now seek to heal the divisions that have emerged throughout this campaign —and to focus on what unites us, rather than that which divides us.”

Kim (Norwegian, based in Berlin): Staying united is not so clear cut though is it? E.g. should Scotland stay united with England or the EU…?

Sophie: Here’s Kazuo Ishiguro on Brexit. I particularly agree with the following:

“We cannot afford at this moment to be ruled by anger or by a sense of self-righteousness. Anger will make a treacherous guide in our current situation, and it is imperative we think and act coolly.”

Jia Jia: Loved this article. Super helpful for calibrating my attitude towards our current situation.

5. Dissecting the reasons:

Neha (American, based in Dallas): I read a fair amount of articles commenting on the Leave side’s economic and political platform—centered on a rejection of globalization and modernization—and its attractiveness to its voters. I think it’s more complicated than that.

Policy, I believe, actually mattered very little to the voters. It was more about getting back to a set of vague ideals and values that embodied a UK that Leave voters wanted back. If the Leave political leaders’ half-baked ideas and plans were the way to do it, so be it. It’s the same reason why Trump won the Republican nomination despite his policies being trashed from almost all sides.

Leo: Eric Kauffman (professor from University of London) wrote an article around this premise. He put’s it very nicely, “People are divided between those who dislike difference – signifying a disordered identity and environment – and those who embrace it. The former abhor both ethnic and moral diversity. Many see the world as a dangerous place and wish to protect themselves from it.”

Jia Jia: I think that society is a complex system which means that pinning anything down to this or that is both partially right and wholly incomplete. Brexit voters can be characterized by their values but values don’t develop in a vacuum. There are many contrasting influences within each of us—the values that our parents brought us up with, the company that we keep, our experiences growing up or in the workplace, specific traumas that leave deep impressions, and others.

Ahalya: Really interesting perspective from The New York Times here. This article proposes that disagreements over Brexit/Trump’s policies boil down to a difference in priorities between the ‘elites’ and the less well-off masses: efficiency vs. equality.

Efficiency is about maximizing the size of the pie; i.e. improving overall GDP and welfare. Remaining in the EU would have been the more efficient outcome for the UK since it boosts growth through free trade, etc. This is why remaining was supported by experts and the more educated/elites. However, the majority of people disregarded this argument when voting to exit the EU. This is because the less well off/elite favor equality over efficiency; i.e. they don’t care if the total pie is smaller, they just want to ensure they get a slice of that pie, and that may be easier to accomplish if the flow of ‘job-stealing’ immigrants is restricted.

Great to frame the disagreement as a clash between priorities rather than difference in expertise or racism/xenophobia, etc.

6. Exploring the broader implications

Jia Jia: There was no rational debate during the campaign leading up to the referendum. And the campaign advisers for the Leave side explicitly said that they knew the campaign would not be won on facts but emotion.

Sure, plenty of people would tell you that they wanted to free UK democracy from the ever-tightening grip of corrupt EU bureaucracy. But that would be said in terms of, “I want my country back” which conflates governance with people, and policies with race. People would also tell you that the UK economy is better off outside Europe, by which they mean more jobs for locals, code for “stop foreigners from coming here and stealing our jobs.”

Monica: This is the most worrisome aspect of a conversation that is always framed in the shielding rhetoric of free speech – the facts make literally no difference. There’s an increasing use of misinformation as a campaign strategy in a post-factual world. As the Guardian’s editor Kath Viner recently wrote, “When a fact begins to resemble whatever you feel is true, it becomes very difficult for anyone to tell the difference between facts that are true and ‘facts’ that are not.”

Shahar (Israeli, based in New York): I wonder if what we’re seeing is the true scale of the information overload problem unfolding. People are inundated with massive amounts of stats and opinions but lack the basic tools and/or time to properly sort, process, and assess it. The end result is fragmented and partial discourse. When you can’t build solid fact-based arguments (or validate them), you invariably resort to emotion.

Sophie: Hadley Freeman once posted this gif in relation to the TV pop show, Britain’s Got Talent.

I feel like this relates to how media is currently functioning

Anna: It is very true that the noise is making it harder for us to wrap our heads around what’s happening in the world. For my part, I find history a calmer place where actually you can understand the patterns of behavior of people/ nations, and then flash forward to our days it helps to read the present.

I just discovered the Colbert speech where he roasts Bush. I believe no where else in the world would one find that level of freedom to speak up and demolish a president when he is sitting next to you…

Jia Jia: I agree that this level of free speech could probably only happen in America. Which is a wonderful thing and a double-edged sword. I was chatting with some more right wing friends the other day; they defended America fiercely on free speech. Their basic stance is that the government should leave people the heck alone unless someone’s physical safety is threatened. Which means that discriminatory and hate speech should be allowed and politicians like Trump should be allowed to lie as it’s a fundamental freedom.

Rights, though, come with responsibilities; life is a constant negotiation with others on how much you can exercise your right before it impinges on someone else’s rights. Irresponsible politicians exploit the trickiness of this situation by polarizing the situation into what you want (framed as your inalienable right) vs. what other people (implied elitists) tell you to do.

Monica: “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” – Carl Sagan

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Edited by: Jia Jia and Neha
Participation from: Ahalya, Anna, Jia Jia, Leo, Monica, Neha, Helen, Nicole, Serena, Sophie, Stephanie, Zi

Tags:  identity multicultural politics