Everyone knew what Newton was after. But in the social and political world, we have as many truths as we have eyes. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder in politics, but truth is. This is why different nations cannot immediately agree on the right thing to do.
From the beginning, the European project symbolised peace. It started because the peoples of a given geographical area in particular had witnessed pain. Napoleon and Hitler had been tough to respective other nations at different times. This is far from a fair and inclusive list. The history of humanity is filled with fear, disagreement and wars.
Peace, as an ideal, cannot come into existence at a sudden moment like the gravitational force discovered by Newton. The European Union has adopted Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as its official anthem - without the lyrics of the poem by Schiller which Beethoven placed into his symphony. Schiller’s poem which the EU anthem did not acquire says that custom has divided humanity, but it is the magic of humanity which can unite it again. With the UK referendum, it is the will of this one part of humanity which has explicitly forgotten the power of optimism and trust in ‘the Other’.
