The increasingly pessimistic – dare I say apocalyptic – Brussels Journal, (which frequently panders to European right-wing hyper-nationalism by exaggerating the Islamic threat, social identity, and other “end-is-nigh” hyperbole) still carries the occasional article worth reading. Today I came across a column written by a Briton who goes by “Archonix,” who is clearly unhappy with the European Union – a multi-national government that is essentially accountable to nobody:

…I never voted for the creation of a supranational, unaccountable government that does not submit to the will of the people via an election. In fact, I did not vote at all. I have never had a say on whether I want my country — which no longer exists — to be a part of this. The EU has no mandate and never has.

Archonix draws comparisons to the (American) revolutionary declaration of independence, and also to Germany under Otto von Bismarck in support of his argument, that the natural end of a super-state like the EU is total warfare, if even on some distant horizon. Now, even though the EU is comprised of States which haven’t won a war in a hundred years or more (I’m pointing fingers at France in particular, but Germany is on the list, too) I’m not so quick to dismiss the idea because I understand that the health of States is war. It follows from their very nature, that they can only ever acquire anything through violence; whether it is a war for resources, territory, or dominion, or the various and inescapable threats looming constant over the heads of its own constituency, the health of the state is violence.

Every day I break about 30 laws whilst engaged in what were previously lawful activities. Most of these laws are EU-inspired regulations prescribing the details of how activities are to be carried out. My computer does not comply with regulations on lead content, electrical output or anything else, despite being perfectly safe. The lights in my house will soon be made illegal.

I read somewhere, recently, that British agents would soon be in charge of descending upon citizens’ homes to determine whether said citizens had a television, in which case they would be liable for a telly-tax or some nonsense. And the Dutch – I think it was the Dutch, but maybe the Belgians, would be using infra-red camera-equipped helicopters, performing aerial surveillance to find which citizens were dodging the new tax on barbecue emissions. Archonix concludes by asking rhetorically, “What price the ability to spend the same coin in 20 countries?”

It looks like you’re in for a pretty rough ride across the pond.