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This is excellent by @alexvtunzelmann, on how myths of exceptionalism stop Britain learning from its mistakes. "Britain's Contradictory Brexit Myths", from @TheAtlantic. theatlantic.com/international/… 
@alexvtunzelmann @TheAtlantic As @alexvtunzelmann points out, popular memory tends to invoke two contradictory images of British history: one that celebrates British greatness; another that casts it as a plucky little underdog, standing alone agst impossible odds. I've been writing about this over the summer.
@alexvtunzelmann @TheAtlantic These two ideas feed off one another: the Empire becomes a symbol of what "little Britain" can achieve, if it recovers its island spirit. It treats empire as an *expression* of British power, not as its source; & as something Britain *owned*, not something Britain *was*.
@alexvtunzelmann @TheAtlantic This ties in, of course, to ideas of empire as "the white man's burden": something Britain did *for* the world, rather than something from which it drew strength. As Wendy Webster notes, Britons often saw decolonisation as a disaster for the colonies, rather than for themselves.
@alexvtunzelmann @TheAtlantic The effect is to detach memories of British "greatness" from the imperial power that made it possible. If empire was simply the *expression* of a small island's "will to win", then its loss was no reason why Britain should not continue to cut a dash. See Boris Johnson in 2016:
@alexvtunzelmann @TheAtlantic Boris Johnson persistently represents the empire, not as a loss to be regretted, but as a mark of virility: evidence of what Britain could still achieve if it put some lead in its pencil. Note the "we": empire was something we *did*, not something we *were* - and are no longer.
@alexvtunzelmann @TheAtlantic In other words, the problem with Johnson, Rees-Mogg & co is not that they talk about empire too much; it's that they think about it too little. They look at decolonisation & think "nothing has changed". And that mindset, as @alexvtunzelmann shows, has frequently led to disaster.
