Have you ever just stopped and wondered how small the world is? I know we tend to use this when we’re talking about how we know certain people or how certain people know us, but how does it come into play when things are happening in other countries? Today, British citizens voted in the highly controversial “Brexit bill” which would decide if Britain would stay or leave the European Union. British voters decided to leave the European Union causing David Cameron to resign, and the world to be in political chaos. This is a perfect example of how everything you know about the world can change overnight.
When we think about history we think of the past. Even what we call “contemporary history” tends to stop at the Cold War. We don’t necessarily think of history as something that can happen in an instant. For example, fall semester I took Politics of Europe and studied the history of the European Union with Britain always being a part of it. People taking the class with the same professor, a year later, will be studying it from a completely different perspective.
In this case, this is the start of a new era for Europe, but it’s also a change for how America addresses its foreign policy with European countries and its trading systems. Already the Dow has dropped 600 points and the British pound’s worth is at the lowest it’s been in years. We are currently living and experiencing a seismic historical change, that will probably be felt throughout the world for the next five to ten years in addition to the immediate effects of the global market.
Most of the time, if something happens in another part of the world, Americans will only pay attention if it has a direct effect on them. When I was having a conversation with my dad about the possibility of this vote, he told me it reminded him of the falling of the Berlin Wall. One minute, he was having atomic bomb drills in case of a Russian attack, and the next minute, the Berlin Wall was falling down and Russia was losing its stance as the other superpower. As millennials, it is now our job to take this change into consideration, as we approach our future in the job market regardless of what our future careers will be.
Just how much of an impact this has on America can simply be reflected by how much news coverage this vote received on every new station around the country. One news commentator said, “Now is the time to travel to Britain,” while a certain Presidential candidate tweeted, in Scotland (who voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU and might vote again to leave the United Kingdom): Just arrived in Scotland, who is going nuts over the fact that they took their country back, just like we will take America back.
As the largest voting bloc in the country, do we really want a presidential candidate who doesn’t even know how a crucial vote will impact our future or even how the country he is visiting voted? As a powerful voting bloc we are not just experiencing history as it happens, we now have the ability to mold the world to help our future. The world is shrinking and the decisions we make today will not only have a profound effect on us, but will also have a large impact on the rest of the world.
