Some journalists have written that the Brexit is essentially class warfare, I wouldn’t quite term it that way. I guess Britain being Britain and class issues being something easy to frame the discussion, but as a whole, I don’t think it is a class thing.
What it is, is people rejecting a modern society that does not work for them. Make no moral or intellectual judgement about this, this is purely people rejecting ideas and effort that do not produce anything of value for them.
This is not an isolated phenomenon, in the United States, Trump and his ilk are riding the rising tide of the disaffected working poor into the oval office.
These people do not reject modernism or progress or technology, there may be some bigots and racists hiding their hatred amongst this group of genuinely concerned and worried populace, but by and large the disaffected are only rejecting a trajectory of a modern world that has stopped working for them.
Not everyone can be a singer-songwriter, or be in technology or manage social media.
These disaffected many have very valid concerns that need to addressed, but chiefly amongst them is “rezeki”. I love the Malay word “rezeki”. It literally means sustenance, but most take it to mean a legal, moral and dignified manner to seek work and income to sustain the self and family.
Modernity and technology has taken a lot from the working masses, and we don’t give enough of it back. We are going to take much more of it by the end of the decade with the advent and mass deployment of automation, service marketplaces, weak AI etc.
Before long, we will have taken away almost everything from them that once allowed the working masses to obtain a living. Will they eat the rich? Is universal basic income the only solution?
I don’t know, but it is worth pondering the end result of the world we build and leave our children, especially us, the lucky few who work in technology.
