Read on Twitter
Thread; The lie at the heart of civic Nationalism. Civic Nationalism is a cover story, it's a form of 'exceptionalism' ; Globally, Nationalism is generally recognised as a negative. It excludes most of humanity, it divides neighbours.
Hence the rebrand. Cuddly, fluffy, civic-nationalism. Not as blatantly ethnically racist- instead, more subtle. But still "Us and them" still Discrimination on the basis of some imaginary, invisible, interim line on a map.
But the concept is based on, is a lie. 2 lies.
Yes tartan, yes kilts, yes Gaelic roadsigns in areas no one kens Gaelic. Yes haggis and castles and wee bit hills and glens; all the stuffs we churn out that tourists love. I don't mean that.
Yes tartan, yes kilts, yes Gaelic roadsigns in areas no one kens Gaelic. Yes haggis and castles and wee bit hills and glens; all the stuffs we churn out that tourists love. I don't mean that.
The lies are that 1) There's some single shared inherent conceptual Scottish identity and values shared both by millionaire 'simple crofters' and poor souls like penniless new Scots refugees.
And 2) That's it's irrevocable so distant and so different from those a few miles south of me, as I write, on our tiny island, that some great injustice is being done, and seperation required at almost any cost.
Let's take lie 2 first. There are some differences between Scotland and rUK, sure. But in aggregate Scotland is closer genetically, physically, culturally, historically on language, law and custom to the rUK than to any other place in the world.
But Scotland's far more left wing! Scotland's far more welcoming to immigration! Scotland votes for the lovely SNP those English bastards vote for the Tooaaariesss....
Mebbes on while Scotland is slightly more, but it's not borne out by the evidence as much as it's shouted in the rhetoric.
Exhibit one; shortly before the lib Dems went into coalition with the Tories in Westminster, the SNP went into coalition with the Tories in Holyrood. Why? Because the Tories and SNP were closest economically, so only the Tories would sign off on the SNP budget.
Exhibit two. Remember Alex Salmond is a millionaire banker. The *only* firm tax commitment in the 2013 whitepaper was a tory-style 2% cut in corporation tax.
Exhibit three: the social attitudes survey. Carried out regularly and to a high standard there is simply no huge cultural gap. Even on something like immigration, views of voters in Scotland and England are broadly the same.
https://natcen.ac.uk/our-research/research/do-scotland-and-england-wales-have-different-views-about-immigration/
https://natcen.ac.uk/our-research/research/do-scotland-and-england-wales-have-different-views-about-immigration/
So lie one; is there some inherent, magically shared set of socio-economic political values that are shared? That define 'Scotland' . There's certainly an effort to make it seem that way, or that anything is Scottish as long as it's pro-nationalist.
That's the attitude that makes it laudable for the makkar to join the SNP, but the head of the National Trust isn't allowed to be a unionist. The head of Scottish theatre isn't allowed to be English.
Well, let's take our two most recent constitutional referendums. What is the settled Scottish view on something as fundamental as the constitutional settlement?
The answer is, Scotland hasn't been divided, Scotland has been quartered. Next time someone claims to "Speak for Scotland" , to be "stronger for Scotland" or to "Put Scotland First" remember this;
No matter how you voted in the indy and brexit referendums. THE VAST MAJORITY IF SCOTS FUNDAMENTALLY DISAGREE WITH YOU.
I'm in the largest group, and still, 72% disagree with me.
BTW a lot of this could be applied to the UK and Brexit as well. "there's more that unites us than divides us" https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/more-unites-us-than-divides-us-say-researchers/
BTW a lot of this could be applied to the UK and Brexit as well. "there's more that unites us than divides us" https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/more-unites-us-than-divides-us-say-researchers/
A lot of this will fall on deaf ears. But the fact is, while we squabble over parochial Nationalisms, we are not solving the very real global problems.
This is not sustainable.
This is not sustainable.
