Good, evil and stupidity?

André Trocmé was a Protestant pastor with a good turn of phrase.

Along with many others, he courageously saved the lives of many Jewish people, hiding them from the Vichy authorities, and then the Nazis in the Massif Central in France during World War II. Arrested in February 1943, his thoughts were: ‘I had always believed there were two powers fighting over our world, good and evil. But now I realise there is a third: stupidity.’

Referendum options

These words came to mind as I pondered the current cause célèbre, the upcoming referendum on Europe. My feeling is that the country is being asked to choose between two extremes, neither of which the majority of British people really wants. The choice is between jumping irrevocably aboard the bus bound for the united states of Europe, dominated by foreign bureaucrats and judges who don’t understand us and with the inevitable dilution of our democratic power*, or becoming a ‘go it alone’ nation, regarded as a pariah by the rest of the continent and, if President Obamah is to be believed, by the USA as well. Surely most of us do not desire either option. We want to be our own country, with friendly and mutually advantageous trading, political and cultural relations with our neighbours. This is what many of us thought we had signed up to in 1973. But stupidly, that is no longer an option.

The referendum campaign indicates that we have become a country incapable of conducting an open, respectful and sensible conversation with itself. The ‘Remain’ camp’s tactics has been marked by scare stories and depressing negativity – including predictions of economic meltdown and World War III. And, much as Boris Johnson for the Leavers is often endearing and entertaining, his comparison between the EU and Hitler’s regime was a giant and disrespectful gaff.

And here we are, caught in the middle of this with our futures at stake. In this year of the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare, I can imagine many in the electorate concluding ‘a plague on both your houses’.

Common sense?

It is difficult to pin down exactly where this stupidity has come from. Certainly it is to do on one side with the relentless drive towards uniting Europe, which brooks no questions and on the other with the nostalgic dream of the gallant little island standing alone for freedom. But it probably also has to do with the way in which the secular media shapes politics today. So-called ‘British Values’ – democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance – appear to encapsulate the essence of sense and practicability. But what do those things mean when, for example, public opinion is so easily swayed by technology and a media elite with its own agenda about what makes ‘good television’?

Under such a regime strange things happen. Angelina Jolie-Pitt becomes UN spokesperson on refugees? Caught on camera, one remembers Labour leader, Neil Kinnock on Brighton sea front stumbling into the sea. He was never a credible politician again. Sound-bite mud slinging and character assassination draws many more viewers and YouTube ‘hits’ than sensible ‘boring’ debate. And no matter which way the vote on the EU goes we will still be in the hands of a secular media-driven government, either in London or somewhere across the Channel.

Where is the refreshing common sense of wisdom which comes from above, which is ‘first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere’ (James 3.17).