Those of you who remember Peter’s wonderful profile last year of the British artist Richard Patterson will want to read Richard’s thoughts on what has transpired across the Pond. As you read his essay on Glasstire, know that Richard wrote it as an email to several of his friends in Dallas. A taste:
What strikes me is that the British are essentially a polite (and at times violent), tolerant and ultimately cautious country, but who have never had a modern European-style bloody revolution. For various reasons, the British have never had to “rise up,” although it’s not been without civil unrest. It has excelled, mostly, in resolving complex social and economic issues politically. However, regrettably, one aspect of Britain that we all know — the whining, the complaining, the sardonic and ironic pub pundit, the armchair critic pub bore — all of these people who have traditionally blown off steam down the boozer, all of these people with passive political angst and high opinion do not usually coalesce into a meaningful political force. Until you give them a referendum.
