Scratching the post-imperial itch

On 24 June, Nigel Farage declared with typical overstatement that 23 June 2016 would henceforth be remembered as Britain’s “independence day”. Those of us who have concerned ourselves with the fates of nations and societies that achieved their independence from European colonial and imperial rule in the latter half of the twentieth century know that “independence” means no such thing, that it is perhaps the most dazzling and distracting term in the lexicon of the political snake-oil salesman. By that very token, however, it must be acknowledged that it still wields incredible and immeasurable rhetorical force, especially in an era marked by an intensification of globalisation that has enmeshed all nations, states, cultures and identities in an intricate web of reciprocal - albeit highly unequal and uneven - interdependencies.