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On 2016-07-09 17:25, William Flynn Wallace wrote:<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAO+xQEb1RN42Kw-PMR5Lufv0hYhLHkxKfGegszC=S5am_ZC7-Q@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><span
style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.8px">I,
for one, would like to hear what you have to say about the
Brexit, and why it disturbs you.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
There are three reasons Brexit disturbs me: (1) it represents a
rejection of cosmopolitanism, (2) it represents a serious failure of
collective cognition, (3) it likely has somewhat bad effects for me.
<br>
<br>
(1) I do not regard myself as a Brit or a Swede. Sure, I have my
cultural background, but the parts I truly cherish are non-national:
classic, renaissance, enlightenment and modernist ideas about human
flourishing, liberty, open societies, science and transhumanism. I
feel at home when wandering past Planck's lab in Berlin, Pantheon in
Rome, the Royal Institution in London, seeing Franklin on a bill or
comparing EU and Japanese robot regulation with a Chinese scholar
located in Brazil using Skype. I am a cosmopolitan internationalist:
states are merely public service providers. <br>
<br>
But Brexit was very much a nationalist event. Looking at the
attitudes of the people who voted for Brexit (
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/">http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/</a>
) you see that they dislike multiculturalism, social liberalism,
feminism, environmentalism, globalization, the internet and of
course immigration. These are the people who regard affiliation to
their "English" tribe as higher than even their "British" identity.
Many think that the state should reflect their tribal affiliation
and reject other affiliations: loyalty and purity are more important
than tolerance and openness. These are not my people.<br>
<br>
I think we need to defend the enlightenment globalist vision. We
need to push for tolerance, which is extra complex because many of
those who do not share the vision feel they do not benefit from a
more cosmopolitan world, and prefer a closed one: tolerance of the
Other is bad for their visions.<br>
<br>
<br>
(2) The pre-election arguments that Brexit would be a horrible mess
were very strong: essentially all mainstream experts (regardless of
political color) in law, policy, economics, administration you cared
to ask could give good reasons. However, this did not impress many
people. Maybe part was somewhat misguided attempts at being
even-handed that gave far too much media space to pretty
non-mainstream experts and weak arguments, but the main part seems
to have been that people just regarded facts as rhetoric. Why should
you trust experts at the Bank of England about monetary policy when
you can decide for yourself?<br>
<br>
The problem is not just that a stupid decision was made - accidents
happen. The problem is this does not look like an isolated issue
(think Trump, think Syriza). If a society cannot actually tell good
and bad evidence apart, then we should expect collective decisions
to be random: very bad news when dealing with important and
dangerous things. Open societies depend on the freedom of citizens
to find things that ought to be changed and then convincing society
to change them. If this process is too noisy open societies have no
strong advantage - moral or practical - over closed societies. <br>
<br>
This is deeply troubling, and we spent a fair bit agonizing over it
at a panel debate a few days later (
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/membership/audio/2016/jul/01/what-will-the-world-look-like-in-2025-guardian-live-event">https://www.theguardian.com/membership/audio/2016/jul/01/what-will-the-world-look-like-in-2025-guardian-live-event</a>
) The causes are complex: a cultural shift, networked media, new
noise sources, far bigger societies... but we better find them and
figure out how to fix them, or we will be drowned in noise. <br>
<br>
<br>
(3) is fairly simple. I became about 10% poorer overnight as the
sterling fell. The UK economy will go into recession at least until
there is clarity, which at best will take months. There is *huge*
uncertainty about EU-funded research, and this will affect the
academic world in the UK badly (sure, current grants are still "in
the bank", but suddenly nobody is certain if having UK researchers
on a new grant proposal is a minus - which means that many will be
dropped). Some very minor risk that I might be forced out the UK in
a few years or at least be subjected to bureaucratic hassle. Nothing
serious, but it makes life slightly worse. <br>
<br>
<br>
There you have it.<br>
<br>
Let man's petty nations tear themselves apart<br>
My land's only borders lie around my heart<br>
--Chess, <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/61DiWi00d2w">https://youtu.be/61DiWi00d2w</a> <br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University</pre>
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