The sad face emoji isn’t supposed to convey happiness. It would not be doing its job if it did. Signaling sadness, or at least a heavy melancholy, is its role in life.
For me, however, sad face emoji is a painful reminder of many peoples’ lives changing literally overnight just over ten years ago.
Overnight, it’s over
To this day, I can’t think about that fateful evening of the Brexit referendum on June 23rd, 2016, and feeling terribly glum.
The results from Newcastle were the harbinger of doom. A quick of math showed that we, the Remain camp, were underperforming. London had to pick up the slack.
Alas, London wasn’t doing its job. I went to bed before the result of the referendum was announced. The reason was that I couldn’t stand to watch live the death of an ideal I and so many others, especially young people, desperately treasured. I went in and out of sleep.
Pinged — and pained — by an emoji
My phone pinged in the early hours. It was my cousin. He had sent a text message. But it contained no text, just a single emoji, that of the sad face.
I knew the result was official. I put the phone down, turned my head on the pillow and began to silently cry.
The next morning, bruised and stunned, I resolved to plot a course to eventually leave the UK. I respected the result, but I did not have to be holden to it.
I, like many hundreds of thousands, became an exile from the shattered national soul. I now live in Portugal.
There is no delight in being proven right
I was and remain a passionate European. I believed that secession from the EU would devastate the United Kingdom, but I was willing to be proven wrong. I was humble enough to reserve judgement.
It has been ten years. Unfortunately, I have been proven entirely right.
There is no delight in being proven right. It breaks my heart to see beautiful, adorable, gentle Britain in the state it is today.
The British economy has been asphyxiated and virtually everyone has suffered. From businesses to households to hospitals, money has been choked off.
I have written often about the economic impact of Brexit, most recently in The Globalist, so I will not rehash those points.
Economic hardships and social impact
But as history teaches us time and time again, with economic hardships comes a social impact.
The social impact of Brexit has been ghastlier than anyone could have imagined. The Britain I grew up in — and was schooled about — was a pragmatic, enterprising nation with a calm-minded people proud of their history, common sense and tolerance.
A country consuming itself
The United Kingdom I observe now is consuming itself. It roils in rage and anger, of which Nigel Farage and are just the most obvious and deplorable surface phenomena.
Britain is literally flesh-eating the very essence of what it once was. It is not a place I recognize. It is not Britain.
Brexit was an exercise in nationalism, so of course, in the immediate aftermath there was a surge in racism and flag waving by a minority. For a while, it faded down to a simmer.
Later on, when the economic fallout began to be felt, most severely by those on lower incomes and those who rely on the state (many of whom voted for Brexit), the politics changed dramatically.
As lives became harder, jobs became fewer, food became more expensive and waiting lists for social and medical services became ever longer, the pillars of their existence began to buckle.
From desperation to fomenting hatred of the “other”
People became scared and desperate. That desperation soon tuned to anger. The far-right populist parties did as they always do and convinced the desperate that the immigrant, or the “other”, is to blame for the state of their lives.
They believed the con — and so began the madness. The lunacy, the irrationality and the foaming of the mouth which continues to this day and shows little sign of abating.
Burnham: Reduced to window dresser-in-chief?
Andy Burnham, Britain’s latest prime minster, knows how to present a happy tale of togetherness.
The reality that will likely hit him hard in short order is that his policy package —devolution, state intervention, state re-wiring and “Manchester vibes” (whatever they are) — may have promised a way out of the conundrum a while ago.
These days, however, the odds are that none of these actions will remove the chokehold that Brexit still has over the UK economy and livelihoods.
And so, Burnham risks being reduced to window dresser-in-chief and head tinkerer. Meanwhile, the laceration of the beautiful British soul will continue.
A great leader: How to change a nation for the better?
A brilliant prime minister is someone who has a firm vision of the country whose leadership he or she has been entrusted with.
And a leader who has the skills and competence to sell the argument to the electorate and to lead public opinion to a new place. This is how you change a nation for the better.
During his tenure as mayor of Manchester, Mr. Burnham has proved that, aside from being a good conversationalist, he is also a good administrator.
Now we will see if he is a good leader. Britain’s deficit of leadership is how they got into this sorry, heartbreaking situation.
So much is contingent on if he can be brave and if he can lead. If he can, the country that is not just dear to me personally but that is meant to play a special, constructive role in the concert of European nations can be cured.
For that to happen, it must move from its temporary, disfiguring madness to that other part of its soul, that charming smile, once again.
I have a dream
I look forward to the night, one day soon maybe, when I go to up to bed early during the vote count of a referendum.
I will go to bed early that night, not out of dread, but in the knowledge that Newcastle has done as it should and London is more than talking up any slack.
At about 2 am, I will receive a message form my cousin. The smiley face emoji lets me drift off into a joyous dream. I wake up the next morning and all is well again.