Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything - Because there’s nothing else to do

Episode Date: July 6, 2016

Your host wanders London just before and after Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union.

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Episodes every other week at neverpo.st and wherever you find pods. This installment is called Because There's Nothing Else to Do. The only real Brexity thing I noticed when I was in London, two days before Britain's historic vote to leave the EU, was a poster. It was for the Leave campaign. Large white letters on a blood-red background proclaimed, Turkey, population 76 million, is joining the EU. This poster also featured an image of a British passport,

designed and propped open to look like a door, with footprints marching through it. And underneath these footprints was the Leave slogan. Vote Leave. Take back control. When this poster was released in late May, numerous commentators and journalists pointed out its factual inaccuracies and racist overtones. But all the condemnations from the intelligentsia and the takedowns on social media had no effect. A month later, this poster was everywhere. I saw it affixed to walls in toilets and bus stops.

I even came across one plastered on a billboard out in the open in Soho. The Leave campaign released a video ad to go with this poster. It contained a clip of Prime Minister David Cameron basically saying that he would do whatever it takes to bring Turkey into the EU family. This is something I feel very strongly, very passionately about. I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels. Apparently, David Cameron was for Turkey before he came out against Turkey. So journalists, of course, pointed out the factual inaccuracies of this ad as well.

But the Leave campaign, they ran this Turkey thing all the way to the polls. Like I said, I saw this poster everywhere, even on the tube. As I rode the Piccadilly line to Heathrow, copies slid out of newspapers and magazines, piling up on the floor. When I got off the train at Terminal 5, it was like I had to cross a river of blood. Two days after the Brexit vote, I flew back to London. An EU passport still exempted you from kettling with the arrivals from all other places. The immigration queue was long, but there was no chaos or mayhem. It seemed all the harm wrought by the leavers had yet to make its way to customs. At least, that's what it seemed like before I reached the counter.

I handed an older woman my documents. Where are you coming from? She asked. Beirut, I replied. She stiffened. And how long will you be staying in London? She was all business now. Two days and then back to France. She held up my American passport like it was evidence of my dissimulation. Do you live in France? Yes, I answered. I mean, for the summer. Flummoxed and trying to crack her mask of serious British concern, I offered up even more information. My wife is French. And you know, it's actually easier to fly to Beirut from London than Paris. This did the trick. She started stamping my documents. Then she looked up at me,

and with her eyes pointing to the queue behind me, she said, Well, doesn't that just explain everything? I looked over my shoulder. The majority of people queued up behind me, waiting patiently with their passports from all other places, were brown. The day after the referendum, a popular Google search in the UK was, what is EU? Uncertainty most definitely breeds comedy.

My personal favorite bit of Brexit hilarity came from a woman who replied to an article in the Daily Mail called, Six Ways Everyone Is Now Financially Worse Off After Brexit. Yesterday, Nora angrily wrote in her online comment, you were urging for us to vote out. So what on earth is this article? How about you write an article on how Brexit is going to benefit us? There were just so many good Brexit jokes. And Nigel Farage, that gadfly clown, lover of big Belgian beers and EU expense accounts, leader of the fascist UK independence party, public face of the Leave movement, he was the butt of most of them.

You know, when I came here 17 years ago, and I said that I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me. Well, I have to say, you're not laughing now, are you? But I promise you, dear listener, there is nothing funny about Nigel Farage. Today, honesty, decency and belief in nation is going to win. And we will have done it. We will have done it without a single bullet being fired. Yeah. Yeah, less than a week after Britain First supporter Thomas Mayer put multiple bullets into the body of Labour MP Joe Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two and a very public anti-Brexit campaigner, this monster actually said that.

Even after Thomas Mayer gave his name in court as Death to Traitors, Freedom for Britain. In his resignation speech, Nigel Farage said his work is done. But he's not referring to the referendum. He's talking about fascism. Farage has emboldened not only the lunatics like Thomas Mayer in the UK, he's emboldened fascists and authoritarians

all over the world. Brexit is the sign they've all been waiting for. He's delivered them out of the wilderness and to the gates of the promised land. Their time is now. I stayed in London with a friend who works at one of Britain's more left-wing newspapers.

And on the Monday after the vote, I accompanied her to the office. So many people showed up for the morning conference, we had to move to a larger auditorium. And even then, most people still had to stand. The editor-in-chief kicked things off with a round of congratulations. Their coverage of Brexit was trending on all platforms worldwide. The stats were like nothing they've ever seen before. She singled out a few articles and infographics for applause,

and then she opened it up to the floor. So, what should we be covering today? A man in the front jumped at the opportunity to speak. He voiced his anger that people who voted to leave were being painted as racists. Allowing people from poor countries to move freely to rich countries, he mansplained, is just a proven, unmitigated disaster. The audience started to grumble. Obviously, this is not the official line for this left-wing newspaper.

I leaned over to my friend and asked her who this guy was. Oh, he's not a journalist, she whispered back. I think he works in tech services. Eventually, someone else interjected with a lecture on how the free movement of people leads to cheaper goods and services. But our man kept shouting until the editor-in-chief cut him off and called on someone else, a woman in the back, who lamented at how difficult it was for her, dealing with the shock.

The audience let out a collective, understanding sigh. I just don't know a single person who voted to leave, she exclaimed. I do know one British journalist who doesn't live in a filter bubble. BBC film director Adam Curtis. If there's anyone who can make sense of this Brexit mess, it would be him. Everything we're told by journalists and politicians is confusing and contradictory. It's an odd, non-linear world that plays into the hands of those in power. A couple of years ago, I brought Adam to New York to speak at a festival that I curated. And so, on the night before I left London, I texted him.

We met up at a pub near his house for drinks. This was the night England was playing Iceland. So, we had to drink outside. According to Adam, this vote is evidence that people have completely lost faith in elite institutions like politics and media. The idea of Europe, when expounded by the elite, rings hollow and false. He told me that he's hard at work on a new film that will go into all of this, not only Brexit, but Syria, and Donald Trump as well,

which is why he hopes to have it finished by the U.S. elections. But for now, I'll share with you something that he told me. Something amazing. He said, if we really want to understand Brexit, all we have to do is listen to the song Common People by Jarvis Cocker. Of course, I begged him to let me record him singing the song, at least the chorus, but he said, absolutely not. not you have been listening to Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything. This installment is called Because There's Nothing Else to Do.

This episode was written and produced by myself. Special thanks to all of my friends in London, especially Helen Zaltzman, Francesca Panetta, and Adam Curtis. I can't see anyone else smiling. You can find everything you need to know about the program, including an archive, at toe.prx.org. The Theory of Everything is a proud member of Radiotopia, the world's best story-driven podcast network.

Radiotopia is funded by the Knight Foundation, MailChimp, fool Pretend you never went to school Still you never get it right Cause when you're laying in bed at night Watching roaches climb the wall If you called your dad he could stop it all, yeah You'll never live like common people You'll never do like ever common people do Radiotopia from PRX