Fairy tales from a land over the rainbow

So the people of Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty - well, it didn't come that unexpected, did it?
And now everybody is rotating trying to make predictions about what should be the next steps of the other member states and what chances a modified treaty in what form could have.

Of course, it's a discouraging thing to see the EU reform process running into a wall, but we also received an important lesson.
The European Union stumbeled about what I consider one of its largest weaknesses: the unability to explain its own use. The people of Ireland did not reject the Treaty, because they thought it would bring them disadvantages. Well, the single voters maybe thought that, when they made their checkmarks, but the people of Ireland rejected the Treaty, because their government failed to explain to them what the Treaty is. Actually, they shouldn't have tried to explain the Treaty, what they should have explained is the EU. And not only the Irish government failed in doing so, it's just that their constitution doesn't allow for the ratification-shortcut most of the other member states chose.
The Lisbon Treaty is a complicated thing, because the member states form a complicated system. I guess there would be a smarter way to set up the document, but that's not the point here: No matter how complicated the contents and no matter how manifold the areas touched by the treaty, if you consider the history of this document you do not vote for or against special point in the treaty, you vote for or against the EU.
That's the point.
The EU appears to have neither character nor much of a purpose in the eyes of the voters (everywhere in the EU). It is received as an artificial construct build by governments.
And if you do not know what exactly that thing is and how exactly your nation is supposed to fit into, then naturally you'l l become very suszeptive to all those witches and future-tellers, proclaiming that they had foreseen the end of your souvereignity if the european bindings are tightened. It is the fault of the national governments that this is the case. It is them that did not transport the information about their vision of their nation in the EU to their people. And it is them that missed to include this vision into their national election campaigns properly.
In so far, it is no wonder that the Irish just decided to listen to those witches that promised the status quo without caring much about whether they are good or evil. In fact, in the absence of proper information it is the smartest thing you can do.

The important question is whether or not european governments will be able to go back a step and pick up their people on their way to Brussels or whether they decide to leave them in the woods (the dark ones with the witches in them).