The Elections Monster (8)

The monster can assume many forms.

Sometimes, you've seen him before: a character in your nightmares, a creature on TV. He reached out with his dead claw and pulled the covers off of your head before you screamed and he ran away. He's always threatened you, from a safe distance. Other times, the monster has no defined shape. It moves collectively. Its power comes in its ability to mobilize a horde. Zombies come to mind. I hate fucking zombies. But most of the time, the monster is the one that you can see in yourself.

Part of the problem with the result of this week's Brexit vote is that you can understand, on the most abstract level, why some of the arguments to leave would make sense, and why some of the reactions to the Leave victory are just as pig-headed as abandoning Europe. The idea that choices are wrong means democracy is wrong. It's true: some choices are hard to get a hold of, protean, but the election is always a monster, even when it assumes a pleasing shape. The best choices we ever make also lead to horrors.

[Top image: "Svipdag transformed" by John Bauer via Wikimedia Commons]