My wife asked me why Scotland appears to be so different from England politically? That's an excellent question and my answer here will be necessarily superficial as this is a huge question for which I can only give a summary. The first difference is cultural. Scotland has a cultural history that is rooted in the clan system, thus, Scotland has a more tribal history than England, which I argue helps to explain why Scotland is culturally more socially and community minded and has not been so deeply poisoned by the dominant individualism. This tribalism is not manifest in Scotland today as no-one in Scotland is at all affected by their historical clan roots and their only connection is their name. However, the Scots still identify with that system culturally through our national symbols that we exploit through tourism, tartan, bagpipes, haggis (which almost no-one ever eats), kilts (which almost no-one ever wears), and a clan system we barely identify with but exploit when it suits us. As a result, Scots have an identity that is recognisable throughout the world that the English do not share. In addition, most Scots identify as British, but importantly, and this is another historical legacy, as European. As a result, Scotland is a genuinely multi-cultural society, made even greater by the rich variety that has been embraced by successful immigration, rather than by a rejection.
I consider it a truism that the more identities that people share the freer they are. People who adopt a singular or a set of limited identities are far less free that a person who adopts a pluralist outlook. That is why pluralist societies are far more attractive and freer than totalitarian. A slave for example, or a prisoner, have only one identity. People who are very religious and adopt that badge as their defining identity are not free in the sense that they become a self-imposed limited personality. As a result, a very religious person may be Scots but may well identity themselves by their religion first and actually reject their Scottishness because of the demands of their religion. In other words they become alienated from their social reality in a form of self-imposed slavery. They consciously reject their multiple identities and become hostile to the society that threatens their exclusivity, paradoxically, the society whose pluralism encourages their diversity in the first place. Far too many people exploit the pluralism of our society and seek to impose their form of exclusiveness. Whilst society respects their difference, they refuse to respect the pluralism and tolerance afforded them.
However, it is not only the religious who impose exclusiveness. I have been writing to you about how this was the political model that Thatcher imposed on British society, with the result that we have developed a political system whose entry to the top demands that you are white, predominantly male, privately educated and a product of the Oxbridge system. You must also be rich, but most importantly, subscribe to the dominant political and economic doctrines of neoliberalism. In other words, as Thatcher repeatedly stated, you must be 'one of us'. As a result, British society is becoming more and more dominated by groups of people who reject pluralism and multiple identities. The most obvious rejection in modern times is their European identity and a retreat into an Englishness which is hostile to others.
The European referendum was decided by whole areas of England and Wales that represent the poorest and most working class areas of the country. These are the areas where, as the Bible tells us, "where there is no vision the people perish". These are the areas of large-scale unemployment and poverty, caused, not by immigration, but by the rapacity and greed of the British elite and the doctrines of free market economics. Both Adam Smith and Karl Marx identified the human being as a worker, a labourer and producer. That is the principal identity that Mark labelled a human being's 'species being' and is the defining identity that far too many people in this country have been quite deliberately deprived of by deliberate pigsty policies of mass unemployment. As you become alienated from your species being you also become alienated from society and from your fellow human beings. You are progressively stripped of your essential identities, those identities that are the essence of the human species, and comprise your social self. You are reduced to an atomised individual with no meaningful social loyalties. That is the end result of the Thatcher agenda for far too many people and it was quite deliberate. You become selfish as you have no other option, and you become hostile to others. Add in unscrupulous politicians relentlessly blaming those others for your plight, providing you with a scapegoat you can vent you wrath at and blame for a situation that you really cannot understand, and you have the answer as to why Britain voted to leave the EU. The Scots have a different vision, we have other options and a legacy of a rejection of the Thatcherite agenda. The Tories were well warned of the consequences of Thatcher's hatred of the Scots and her insistence on using Scotland as a laboratory for her free market experiment. So, whilst the English were charmed and persuaded by the Spider and his hideous henchmen, they made little impact on that most intelligent and civilised part of Britain. You have been warned.
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
No comments:
Post a Comment