Re: [cicdd] EU Referendum and EU Constitution

[C THOMSON <c.thomson1(at)btinternet.com>]

Dear All

As a latecomer to this conversation, I find myself agreeing with everyone and disagreeing with everyone at the same time. Strange? Yes, but true.

I live in Europe, albeit in the reluctant appendage known as the UK. As you all know, most of the people who voted in the recent UK General Election do not have their views represented in the the new government of Tony Blair, because of the electoral system. The majority of us here, especially in my home country Scotland, are not neoliberals or neoconservatives (it's odd, but these two words apparently mean the same thing). So that's the first point of agreement and disagreement. We have "democracy" in Europe, but in nearly all the member states it's a very odd form of democracy, in which the views of a minority prevail over the majority. It's causing a lot of resentment and disillusionment, and those in minority power clearly have no incentive to change the system.

The second point of agreement-disagreement concerns economics and "prosperity". It's quite true that there's more money swilling around than ever before in human history, but I cannot help noticing that inequality is increasing, that people seem unhappier than they were a few decades ago, that mental and emotional illness are at record levels, and that the planet and all life on it are more threatened than ever. We may be the richest species on the planet, but we are also the most dangerous and destructive. We have managed to cause at least 15 holocausts in the last three hundred years, many of them much bigger than the Nazis-Jews holocaust of the 1940s. We make great white sharks look gentle by comparison

So, I have to question the "European project". I am all in favour of people living in peace with each other. But I do wonder whether a project designed mainly to increase GDP and maximise profits for eternity is really what human beings were designed for.

Best wishes

Chris Thomson....in Edinburgh, Scotland, where global warming manifests as global cooling and global wetting

Chris Thomson

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