American Rhino

Check the online definition. You learn a rhinocerous is a large, heavily built  mammal with one or two horns on its nose and thick folded skin. You discover that all rhinoceroses are endangered. However, before getting upset at the possibility of their extinction, consider first who and where they are.

Right now, a large herd of them is to be found in the United States Senate. They can be seen huddled together, mostly male with a few females stuffed into their mass, watching a woman tell the truth about her sexual assault by one of their fellow rhinos. Their snouts lift upwards, they sniff the political winds, they lower their massive heads and snort untruths about her whilst defending their accused member. He's a good rhino, they insist; such a well educated beast would never harm a lady; he was only playing rhino games like we all do, but his hooves got a bit heavy. Snort, snort, he's all right and she's lying. Snort, snort, let him drink at our watering hole;  leave her outside in the heavy weather.

Keep watching as they snuffle their way through questions by the press; as they enlist the head rhino's press secretary to bray about how no one, least of all head rhino himself, is mocking the accuser; as they whisper reassurances to one another that elevating the accused to a position of high honour is only right for he is, verily, the very essence of rhinodom. He's even better than many of them at appearing dainty when he crushes someone under him. And when he's angry, his rage is magnificent to behold, righteous and wreckless and thrilling in its disregard of truth.

Listen as the largest rhino of all, he of strange orange skin and hair, has the last bellow. "My fellow creatures", he roars, demanding apologies for hurting one of his herd, "you made the mistake of naming what should never be named, wounding one of our finest beasts. Never again question the power of one who demonstrates how easy  to move to the front of the herd. You pulverise whoever gets underfoot."

Note: sadly, honourable non-elected rhinoceroses are an endangered species. This is not meant to disparage their magnificent being.

-Rose Levinson

Brexit Blues

I’m weary beyond words at the ongoing disaster that is Brexit. Yes, I'm an American citizen who cannot vote in the UK. Fundamentally, I’m an outsider to the culture I now share. But I’ve come to regard London as my home. In this city-state of exiles, I’m one of many who both lose and find themselves in its vast sea of diversity. I have a stake in what happens.

Brexit is a disaster. For me, an older urban intellectual, the impact will be less dire than for those whose livelihood depends on freedom of trade, goods and services. I worry not about my job but about such things as traveling freely to other European countries. This is not said smugly; I know how lucky I am not to be struggling with the economics of a non-European UK.

Basically, it's the stupidity and provincialism of Brexit that outrage me. The UK will be isolated in a world increasingly disordered. It will cut itself off from an EU entity that gives it protection against an increasingly predatory USA and a rising China. The exclusion of potential immigrants will drain London's energy, and no doubt impact the labour force in towns outside London.

In truth, I don't know how it will impact places outside London. I'm less concerned than a good lefty liberal should be. It's the city I care about. I'm a rootless cosmopolitan, and what I value are ideas, diversity, edgy thinking, mixing up of cultures and people, the creative goo arising from confusion. I don't want London to lose its messy soul.

As an American, I can tell you most Americans like Britain for its cool accent and its historical pageantry. Period. When US citizens glance up from their isolation and look out at the world, Britian is not the first place that comes to mind--or even the fifth. It's a delusion to think Britain can see the US as a reliable trading partner--or a reliable anything else. And this will be true even if a non-sociopath replaces the current President.

As the Brexit tumoil rumbles on, I want to scream 'stop, stop before it's too late.' There's some hope the worst of it can be derailed. It was, after all, only fifty two percent who voted Leave against forty eight for Remain. In the US, you can't even change a postal route with that kind of feeble majority. But who knows what madness lurks in the heart of the UK's politicians and how potent the forces for little England are?

-Rose Levinson

A conversation between ourselves

I see my dear friend and co-contributor (a.k.a. Rose, EV’s Managing Editor) is at a loss to know what is going on with the UK and Brexit. I’m going to try and answer! I am British (probably English) as far back as I can go but share many of the feelings that Rose describes despite our contrasting provenance. Of course that is because we are both active participants in London’s diverse and lively culture where identity, on the whole, is open, flexible and welcoming.

For this reason alone, it’s easy to see only the positives about the current status quo (that we don’t want to change) for it is one that embraces the mingling of cultures from near and far and the sharing of lives jointly committed to the development of common values and outlooks. Yes, a thousand times, yes, we must remain! We metropolitans love it and don’t want anything to change.

But even in London, it would be foolish to assume wholesale acceptance. Material conditions are poor for many Londoners, and yet, somehow even for them, optimism pertains. Move out of London, though, and life and outlook can be very different. Go to the run-down northern industrial towns, the depressed agricultural areas, and the coastal resorts whose Victorian splendour has long gone, there is little optimism and scarce expectation of benefit deriving from an opening of arms and a welcoming of strangers. Life has dealt them a hard hand of cards and Brexit might just be one way of transformation.

What’s more, the views of the so-called “liberal elite” (largely the remain-supporting intelligentsia) – a demeaning term used by Brexiter-leading-lights to spread class-based division between remainers and leavers – are scorned in Brexit-land. The intelligentsia is depicted as arrogant and superior, as well as urban and educated, and Brexiter hard-liners continue to poison the minds of pro-leavers by luring them into ever-more drastic ‘no deal’ positions which, most predictions suggest, will be dire for everyone.

But remainers are not free from blame. The early failure to impose checks and balances (such as raising the threshold for what counted as a necessary majority in the referendum and ensuring that accurate information about the pros and cons of both sides’ cases was provided prior to the vote) can perhaps be seen, with good reason, to be a direct consequence of a certain elitist (and remainer) “we know best” arrogance, seized on by the Brexit ideologists, thus guaranteeing its own defeat. Sadly, a second “people’s vote” (a term, in its own way, conveying a certain sense of “them and us”) will only confirm for leavers that their “superiors” have still not got the message.

But we remainers struggle on!!

Gillian Dalley