Thread by @nickreeves9876

1/ A brilliant demolition of the mentality of Brexit Britain. I want to focus on imperialism. It's an imperialist mindset that generates the delusions of superiority and entitlement. But why is that mindset so prevalent, so long after the end of empire?
eand.co/how-britain-be…

2/ The founding members of the European Community all had recently lost or were losing empires through military defeat. The UK, on the other hand, saw itself as a victor in war, as an undefeated nation that voluntarily and gracefully withdrew from imperial responsibility.

3/ This story of voluntary and graceful withdrawal from empire was everywhere when I was a child in the 1960s. The story was a myth, a lie. No empire is given up gracefully. Empires end through humiliating defeat. And that was especially true of the world's largest empire.

4/ In just 25 years from 1947 to 1972 the UK went from ruling history's largest ever empire, to being the sick man of Europe, crawling forlornly into the EEC. And that devastatingly rapid collapse was dressed up as a graceful handing over of responsibility.

5/ So while the British, or mostly the English, knew they had lost the empire they had not had the imperialist spirit beaten out of them by crushing military defeat. So the English have been able to keep their imperialist spirit even while they have no empire.

6/ And what is it to have an imperialist mentality knowing you have no empire? Well I think it's deeply frustrating and angering. On the one hand you have the bitter humiliation of defeat repressed by the myth of graceful withdrawal festering just beneath the surface.

7/ On the other hand you are wide open to claims that your nation can be strong, powerful, great and world-beating. The one thing you don't want to do is give up your imperialist spirit and like other Europeans embark on a new post-imperial project of cooperation.

8/ So Brexit Britain, or Brexit England has a spirit like that of an angry ghost trapped at the site of the death of its empire, unable to move on to a new life. The Brexiters need to accept not merely the physical defeat of empire, but the defeat of their imperial mentality.

9/ For those who have read thus far I'd like to note that I owe @TimothyDSnyder for the very significant observation that the main founders of the European Community were defeated or collapsing empires, not nation states.

10/ I think if we want to erode the imperialist mentality, we should focus not so much on the evils of empire, but on the fact that the empire failed. When faced with the challenges of the modern world it collapsed catastrophically in just 25 years.

11/ Some people might say that Britain sacrificed its empire to beat the Axis. That is nonsense. A successful imperial power would have used the disasters that overtook several of its key rivals to greatly increase its power just as Britain did after 1815.