Kumbaya anyone?

I've been nervous about the EU referendum from day one. You see, it's all deja vu for me. I was about 10, when countries in the Soviet Block - of which my country was a member, split up and gained independence.

Although it made social and economic sense as that interpretation of socialism was oppressive, the consequences are felt to date. Almost 25 years later.  The consequences I am talking about are feelings of bitterness, divisive nationalism, and hatred.

These feelings resulted in a brief war in Transnistria, and I can vividly remember my grandmother's auntie talking about her son being blown up in the fighting, and I can remember not being able to go to school because the horrible sounds of bullets and bombs were too close for comfort.

My daughter is nearly the age I was then. And here we are in the UK and I can't shake the feeling that it's all happening again. I know it's not the same, but the atmosphere, the conversations, the questions are all too familiar. Most of it boils down to bitterness and divisive nationalism.

 Just as back then, I am being told now that it's not about nationalism, that it's about gaining back control and power. That it's about Independence Day. But what does independence mean in the 21st century?

Boris Johnson just said that the EU was a great idea 40 years ago, but no longer fit for purpose.

Well guess what, total independence was probably a great idea 200 years ago, and it's equally not fit for purpose in our highly interdependent world.  

Also, let's have a closer look at who is taking back control. Me? You? My next door neighbour? No. Still a handful of elitist white middle class men who've been after that power for decades. 

If it was up to me, we'd all be sitting in a circle holding hands and singing Kumbaya.  Since politics is no longer fit for purpose, holding hands and singing Kumbaya might be the only thing left to do.