The British EU referendum is just a bit over a day away, and then we'll all just wait nervously for the result. We'll see which one wins: comfort or values. Because in the end, that's what this is about.
EU has become the bad habit of its citizens. The remain camp keeps saying how it'll be so much work to renegotiate everything, how it'll be a jump into the unknown to choose to withdraw from the union. Yes it is, but it's necessary.
We'd hear similar arguments from a drug addict who doesn't want to quit his bad habit. Every day that addict has to make a choice: either he'll prioritise a moment of comfort over long-term benefit by taking his dose, or he can face the consequences of his actions, face that passing discomfort and get a chance to a new, free life.
That's exactly the position each of us are in. Staying in the EU would be giving up to our laziness and to our desire for momentary comfort. That'll be much like saying, "But it's so much work! Why can't we just lay back and let mom do it?". Leaving would take some courage and work just as independent life takes from each of us in our personal lives. But if having an independent and sovereign nation is an important value to you, going through some trouble to get there should be something you're ready to do.
If democracy is a core value to you, you should also be against the EU. In each nation the highest authority should always be the people of that nation, but EU makes that impossible. No matter what we want, we often simply have to obey what Brussels says.
The seat in the table -argument has no bearing in reality. One country doesn't have any influence in voting, and the idea is absurd from the start. You have the control over your own home and how you live in it. Would you exchange that for one of hundred seats in the table which decides for the entire town? Would you value more the complete independence you have in deciding how you eat, sleep and act, or having very little influence on both your own matters and your neighbors' matters?
The same goes with immigration policy: the EU wants to build a common asylum policy, which would mean them deciding who gets in. Would you rather decide for yourself who can stay at your home or have that one out of hundred seats to vote for the entire neighborhood? Exactly.
I've also heard many other ridiculous arguments, such as saying Britain has lots of regulation of its own, so why complain about the EU making petty regulation? OK, so how about I order you to eat, sleep and behave in a certain way in your own home. What's the difference in you deciding for yourself and me deciding, when you have to eat anyway? Of course our own regulation is a lesser evil, because we have the power to change that.
So it's time to choose: do you want temporary comfort which will lead to an antidemocratic, fascist and controlled future for your country or do you choose our European values of democracy, freedom, independence and justice? The second road will take you to a better place, but the start of it is rougher. I think independence and freedom are worth it.
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