Voting rights, or suffrage, in Scotland was a very gradual process. Throughout the 19th century there were 3 reform acts that increased the number of men given the right to vote up to 1885. In 1870 voting had became a secret act to negate political corruption. However, it was not until 1918 that all(most) men had the vote. Women on the other hand had to wait a further 10 years before they caught up. Even then, many women in Scotland were opposed to women getting the vote. Instead, they believed that a woman’s place was in the home; looking after hubby and the weans. This attitude prevailed even when I was a kid in the 50’s. Being a Belgian family, although my mum was actually from Maryhill, { just 800 miles north of Antwerp} my mother had no issue with going out to work at her trade. OK, she became the talk of the ‘steamie’ but mother was no ‘shrinking Voilet’ – which by a twist of fate happened to be her name. Back then, women who showed any spark of independence or ambition were scorned by other women!
I make these points because up to around 1945 the ordinary folk of Scotland had no real say in their life, their community or pretty much anything else. Life was a struggle to keep a roof over your head, food on the table and battle against the numerous health risks that abound in an impoverished society.
As we got back in history in Scotland we had the clan system. Many other cultures had similar structures. They all had in common a hierarchy and like most hierarchies, the vast majority of folks were on that bottom layer. Above the clan chiefs were the ruling classes, subordinate to the Monarch. This structure prevailed back through history until dot.
So, when we refer back to the loss of our freedom in Scotland in 1707, possibly as a consequence of the Darrien Scheme where our ruling classes managed to get conned out of 25% of Scotland’s wealth it is worth noting where the blame lay. The ordinary folk had no vote, no say and no hand in this. The ordinary folk were free to do as they were told. When they woke up and discovered they were now UK citizen that would have meant nothing to them – especially not if the roof was leaking or the dug has just legged it with the dinner?
Basically, down through the years the Scots did as they were ‘telt’, toed the line and in 1914 they were ‘encouraged’ to become canon fodder. They learned the lesson, NOT, and in 1939 they were back down the same hole. Both my parents lived through 10 years, or 2 world wars where your life could be snatched from you from one moment to the next.
But by 1945 things were changing. People were gullible. People were trusting. They had nothing else to compare this with, no way not to be gullible. They must have thought they had died and gone to heaven after the second world war when Churchill was kicked out, Clement Attlee was in power for Labour and the National Health Service was formed. With this amount going for you, gullible didn’t seem like a bad way to be. Employment rates were pretty good, there was a lot to do, even if the jobs were pretty shit and very dangerous. However, as a worker you were expected to be part of the Trade Union who really controlled the Labour Party – who were the Government. Life was looking really good. Ordinary folks had everyone looking out for them. The Trade Unions looked after you. They did the thinking for you. All you had to do was toe the line, pay your dues and support them. Gullible, really isn’t such a bad place to be.
In parallel with the ruling classes that now extended down to your shop steward, there was the good old church. It would be rather naive to imaging they were not all in cahoots. The Trade Unions and the Labour movement look after you on this earth and the other lot see you OK in the next. Life is good. Gullibility is not such a bad place to be?
Gullible nowadays has a nasty ring about it. However, in it’s true sense it really depicts an innocence, a childlike quality. Certainly not a nasty. But there is a sinister quality to gullibility.
THEY KNOW IT. THEY UNDERSTAND IT. THEY USE IT. THEY ABUSE IT.
So, who are THEY. Well, anyone who wants to control the people. Everyone from the layer above you right up to the Monarch. Actually, it goes above that to God Almighty. The best way to control people is to recognise their gullibility and use it against them. For example, if you have been brought up in religion the foundation of religion is faith. In fact religion and faith are inter-changeable words. What is faith? Faith is belief. Belief, is acceptance without prove. In a sense, acceptance without proof depends heavily on gullibility. That, of course does not make it wrong – but it can make it wrong. Consider politics. The corner stone of politics is the political party. To gain power, a political party will produce a manifesto. The manifesto is a sets out what that party promises to do. If people are impressed by the promises in the manifesto they are inclined to vote for that party. When you discover that the manifesto pledges, in the main, did not happen {and there is always a great excuse} then you realise you were ….. yes, gullible. Unfortunately, gullibility has a nasty habit of repeating itself and we keep getting taken in by the same old bullshit over and over again – I used to say ‘once bitten, twice bitten – that’s human nature.
But now, we Scots are on a journey. We may be on a journey to Independence. I hope we are. But in the bigger picture, we are on a journey away from GULLIBILITY. Gullibility is the shackle that holds us back. It’s that big rubber band hooked on to our back pulling us back in. That is what we are really up against. That is more important than Independence.
Ask yourself this question. If 2 million Scots had not been gullible in some form or other – would we be an independent country? I think that’s a YES.
If we can accept this one simple concept, we can begin the real journey; The New Enlightenment. In a blog earlier I called this New Scottish Enlightenment, the Enlightenment of the People.
In the lead up to the referendum, Scottish people made the most progress in their struggle against the blight of gullibility in their history. Scots, now, are possibly one of the least gullible people in the world. But there is much, much more to do. I say:
WE WERE GULLIBLE – THEN WE GET INFORMED – THEN WE TEACH – THEN WE WIN
It really is that straightforward. Some of us are now thinking about the meaning of INFORMED – the first step in the journey away from gullibility. It is far from simple. It is not about getting information. It is much, much more than that. INFORMED is a huge word. A very complex word. I don’t fully understand it. But I hope that others will help me to understand it. When we understand it we can DEFINE it. When we can DEFINE it was can TEACH it. When we can TEACH it we have the power to win. Independence will be the FIRST STEP.
WATCH THIS SPACE.
Here is a little mental exercise I thought about. A bit topical. Let’s get informed about the population of Britain. How would we do that. While you are thinking about that, let me give you a few facts. I don’t know the population of Britain, you don’t know the population of Britain. In fact nobody knows. It is virtually impossible to know. Every second people are born, not always in hospital, it could be at home or on a bus. Every second, people die. Could be sudden, could be an accident, could be a crime. Every few minutes or so, someone new comes into the country and every few minutes or so people leave the county. To answer the question, in a given second you must see every birth, every death, every immigrant, every emigrant. A second later, it will be different. So, you see, getting informed in even the most simple sense, turns out to be a very difficult task.
This is why I reckon that getting informed is an immense task. However, once we recognise this and begin doing it we will become good at it. The better we get the less gullible we become. The less gullible we are the further forward we go. If we were better informed, properly informed we would not fall for the bullshit and scaremongering that served up to the people of Scotland before the referendum!
I have been called a cynic all my life. I know a lot of people who are more cynical than me. I think cynicism is a weapon we are given to fight against gullibility.
But here’s the thing. I could be the least gullible person in the world. But if I am surrounded by gullible people – I might as well be gullible – I certainly would be happier. Cynics are very often very unhappy or very frustrated people. The power we must aim for is to increase the numbers of cynics. This is clearly an example where numbers count.
AND THAT IS THE REAL CHALLENGE!
Up to the day of the referendum we should have been questioning everything. We should have been questioning the information coming from all sides. In reality, we rejected anything from Better Together out of hand and we accepted any good stuff from the YES campaign without question. I was as guilty as everyone else – at least in terms of believing the good news. Think about the difference between the predicted vote and the actual vote, especially up north and the islands. I heard places were 80% YES only to discover they actually voted about 30% YES. When we were given the good news, did we question it? When the scare stories came out such as ‘monetary union’ did we refute their claims strongly enough. For example, I blogged over and over that there was no such thing – and there was no such thing – it was invented. All we did was stick to our guns and claim we would use the pound – very few undecided people believed that – because our response was weak, very weak. When Brown and his mate Darling went public telling us we were Stronger Together, did our senior campaigners go on the offensive attacking them about the gold sell off, ruination of private pensions, Quantitative Easing mis-use, the £1.7 Trillion UK debt? No, our response was weak, very weak. They were sitting ducks and we let them away with it. When Darling kept on about a plan B did we attack his stupidity? If a child was bartering for a toy in the market and the seller said ‘what’s your plan B?’ would the child say, ‘well I’m prepared to pay full price’. NO. We should have branded Darling a childish fool going into a negotiation with all his cards on the table – you couldn’t make that up – but we did nothing about it.
We would not make these mistakes if we were,
PROPERLY INFORMED