The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Is Scotland A Symptom?

Posted on | September 15, 2014 | 27 Comments

by Smitty

Pravda on the Hudson notes:

From Catalonia to Kurdistan to Quebec, nationalist and separatist movements in Europe and beyond are watching the Scottish independence referendum closely — sometimes more so than Britons themselves, who seem to have only just woken up to the possibility that Scotland might vote next Thursday to bring to an end a 307-year union. A curious collection of left and right, rich and poor, marginal and mainstream, these movements are united in the hope that their shared ambition for more self-determination will get a lift from an independent Scotland.

I think they get near the bone with the note:

National self-determination, he said, “is about bringing policies closer to the people.”

Let’s just put a few things out there, shall we?
This is the Information Age

  • The Information Age has underscored the banality of officeholders everywhere, as human beings.
  • Simultaneously, the Information Age has supported lying to more people about more things more subtly than ever, both through cable news and the internet. Does anything think the government ever puts out straight numbers on any topic anymore?
  • Counter-balanced by the increasing number of people looking at each other and inquiring: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Prediction:

People in bulk aren’t bright, but the lies decay at a faster rate than Progress can spew them. Progress dies a slow, ignoble death, if some conservative leadership of Reagan caliber can be identified to blow through the Progressive GOP deadwood.

Scotland herself actually balks at independence, pen comes to ballot. Their motives, as far as I can tell, are not driven by actual capitalist desire for liberty; rather, a truly Progressive desire to tax their way to prosperity. In other words, I doubt there is enough sack under the kilts to make a go of it.

In the history of the crash of global Progressivism, though, the referendum vote will be a notable milestone.

Category: Culture

Comments

27 Responses to “Is Scotland A Symptom?”

  1. RS
    September 15th, 2014 @ 9:52 am

    If I were English, I’d be hoping the Scots voted to take a powder. Scotland is a huge drain on the English economy. How the Scots think they can pay for all those services financed by England is not clear to anyone.

  2. joethefatman
    September 15th, 2014 @ 9:52 am

    The Ontario, CA independence movement will certainly get a boost from it. The Texas secession movement has normally just been a way to blow off steam and not to be taken seriously, but this might just embolden a few to pursue it in a serious way. Not that the yankees will ever let it happen.

  3. NeoWayland
    September 15th, 2014 @ 9:53 am

    It may not need a leader.

    Case in point. Apple Pay. Now I know that not everyone likes Apple products. But Apple has pushed a serious upgrade to POS terminals and credit card transactions, and given their history, may just set the bar for the next few decades. Apple Pay shifts customer verification to an easy to use gadget that most owners won’t be without. That’s a big enough bit. But what if the central banks are taken out of the equation?

    http://reason.com/blog/2014/09/11/digital-wallet-enables-competing-currenc

    What happens when there isn’t a Big Man behind the change? Just a lot of ordinary folks with smartphones and apps?

  4. HamOnRye
    September 15th, 2014 @ 10:33 am

    Pax American and the underpinnings for it are coming undone. The 70 year period is a historical aberration, and I we will soon see a return to “normalcy”.

    The good news is if you are a cartographer business should be quite brisk for the next few decades.

  5. Adobe_Walls
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:11 am

    It could be a godsend to both nations as it appears to have been to the Czechs and Slovaks. Apparently the Slovaks tended to blame their problems on the Czechs, they now have only themselves to blame for or solve their problems. There’s a lesson there for any minority group feeling oppressed. Further, the Scots tend to vote more heavily Labour. If that’s the case anything reducing votes for the socialists would be a boon for England.

  6. Adobe_Walls
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:14 am

    They can’t which could, in time, be all upside for the Scottish people.

  7. RS
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:16 am

    I would hope that’s true, but the Progressive’s takeover of the British Isles is almost complete, Nigel Farage notwithstanding. Consequently, I’m not particularly sanguine about an independent Scotland’s chances.

  8. RS
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:18 am

    If that’s the case anything reducing votes for the socialists would be a boon for England.

    And UKIP dances in the streets.

  9. kbiel
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:32 am

    I wholeheartedly support separatism for any reason. Whether they pine for greater liberty or wish to bring themselves to grinding poverty through socialism, it will be a lesson for the new state and for the observers and the separatists will have no one to blame or congratulate but themselves. Smaller states with fewer constituents per komisar, representative, or king makes reform easier to accomplish too. In other words, separatism brings about subsidiarity.

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:33 am

    I just see Gareth spinning madly in Four Weddings and a Funeral and declaring “It’s bloody Brigadoon!”

  11. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:41 am

    Two words: “More Whisky”

  12. texlovera
    September 15th, 2014 @ 12:25 pm

    My thoughts exactly. The thing I like the most about breaking down into smaller “countries” is that ACCOUNTABILITY goes up exponentially. And it would seem the lack of accountability far outweighs any economies of scale these days…

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  14. canuckamuk
    September 15th, 2014 @ 5:08 pm

    Quebec has been quiet about independence for a while but this will stir them up for sure.

    They have to watch out though as the last time they raised the issue, several groups outside of Quebec started to form to have a referendum to throw them out of Canada if they didn’t win the vote anyway.

    Quebec wants to keep Canadian money, Canadian passports and all the Federal jobs across the Ottawa river. A large number of corporations already left for Toronto after the last push.

    Quebec currently gets more money from the federal government that the province pays to them in taxes. That would be a net loss for them.

    And most importantly, the Cree have said they will not go with Quebec and they have land claims to almost all of Quebec except right along the St. Lawrence river.

  15. K-Bob
    September 15th, 2014 @ 6:23 pm

    I spent some time last week looking through the reports on this Independence vote, since I was ambivalent.

    The thing that stuck out the most is how many raving leftists and Left/Nationalists (goonion types) are for independence, and how regular folks are, like me ambivalent, at best. I was amazed at how many Brits seem to say things like, “Fine, if that’s the way you greedy socialists want it, go start your little EU-loving utopia.”

    I thought Scots were supposed to be fiercely independent. But I’ve seen exactly ZERO calls for individual liberty and a new Constitution supporting unalienable rights in any of these “debates.”

    Farage is right, it’s a massive sham, and it looks like the “independent-minded” Scot has become a myth.

  16. RichFader
    September 15th, 2014 @ 6:37 pm

    Why do Scots politicians wear kilts?

    Because the voters can hear zippers.

  17. Bob Belvedere
    September 15th, 2014 @ 7:55 pm

    The independence that so characterized the Scots has been bred out of them. It’s sad, tragic.

    But one hopes it will eventually, after much misery, be a wake-up call for the Scottish and rekindle that admired independence.

    And one hopes that England, that sceptered isle* will find itself again again and summon that old courage and resolve that made it a guiding light for the World. But it certainly won’t happen as long as it’s people keep electing toffish twits like Davey Cameron.

    _____________________________
    This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,
    This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
    This other Eden, demi-paradise,
    This fortress built by Nature for herself
    Against infection and the hand of war,
    This happy breed of men, this little world,
    This precious stone set in the silver sea,
    Which serves it in the office of a wall,
    Or as a moat defensive to a house,
    Against the envy of less happier lands,
    This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England…

  18. K-Bob
    September 15th, 2014 @ 8:15 pm

    Good call. I’d love for England to rise out of the ashes of Britain.

    I don’t want to live there. I just want them to restore their nation.

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  20. Daniel Freeman
    September 15th, 2014 @ 8:56 pm

    Actually, the yankees might push for it to happen, due to a perception of Texans as massive douchebags who think that they’re better than the rest of the U.S. put together.

  21. joethefatman
    September 15th, 2014 @ 9:06 pm

    We are. o_o

  22. Adobe_Walls
    September 15th, 2014 @ 9:41 pm

    Perhaps it hasn’t been bred out of the Scots but emigrated out of Scotland

  23. Bob Belvedere
    September 15th, 2014 @ 11:34 pm

    Good point and one some of my Mother’s ancestors would probably agree with.

  24. The Osprey
    September 16th, 2014 @ 10:32 am

    Yes, they all went to the Colonies in various waves of migration over the last 200 years. Scots put their stamp on America, Canada (every other Canuck is named McKenzie I think), Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia (Ian Douglas Smith’s family were Scots) and South Africa.

  25. VoteYes
    September 17th, 2014 @ 10:53 am

    Oil, and natural gas, the majority of which belongs to Scotland. Nationalizing the countries oil reserves would pay for whatever they need. It’s been reported that the tax revenue on that oil would amount to 17k per family. All oil reserves should be nationalized instead of revenues winding up in the pockets of just a few. Hilarious how the latter equals independence in your mind.

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