Vancouver Whitecaps: And we don’t care!

This is not the time nor place to discuss the ongoing farce that is Brexit.

But hey! Let’s do it anyway!

One possible interpretation of how Britain (although more accurately England) got itself into such an almighty mess is that it spent far too long wallowing in the successes of the past.

“If things have always gone well then things will always go well.” Seemed to be the self-destructive mantra of the ruling class for far too long, leading to a psyche that not only couldn’t foresee the possibility of failure but couldn’t even conceive of it.

And so Brexit became a kind of sideshow badge of honour for the type of politician who cares more about career than country. It became a wolf whistle to the alluring section of the electorate who no longer bothered to vote and a dog whistle to the voters looking for something darker in their daily politics.

But that sideshow turned into the main attraction when Brexit surprisingly carried the day and suddenly the country was left with leaders who either never really believed in the promises they made or had not thought through the implications of what victory would mean.

Or both.

And so a Parliament which used to make decisions based on generational impact was reduced to making them for the next year and then the next month and then the next week.

Until, with crushing inevitability, every day become a desperate battle for survival and relevance.

And all because the people in charge forgot that merely celebrating the past can never be enough. There has to be a willingness to confront the problems of the present and there has to be a coherent plan for the future.

Oh well, at least this has no relevance to the Vancouver Whitecaps who, this season, are celebrating their 1979 victory in the NASL Soccer Bowl.

Although maybe the job of Marc Dos Santos would have been easier had the club not spent the last few years indolently allowing an unattractive but functional team to disintegrate into an unattractive and dysfunctional one?

And maybe if there was a sense of collective responsibility from the top down the fan base would be more inclined to show patience to how money is spent and not spent?

And perhaps the supporters would have even more patience with the current rebuild if the Whitecaps did more than display a sullen lack of empathy (hidden behind legal language) regarding recent allegations ?

Hard to say.

But while the lessons of Brexit will be varied and many, if it has taught us anything it’s that when people in power care more about staying in power than the greater good the whole edifice will eventually collapse beneath the weight of its own internal contradictions and chaos.

Next game is at Chicago on Friday evening.