So we are told the Scots have “voted” and as Jeff Berwick notes, it is a bit ludicrous to think of voting one’s freedom, forcing the minority to be free as it were. But as Ryan McMaken observes, what fun it is to frighten the priests and worshippers of the central state!
Americans today owe modern Scots (indeed all Scots) an impossibly massive debt. What is it about windy mountains, rough seas, long summer nights and green fields? What is it about liberty and self–ownership, and dare I say, rugged men in skirts that makes one’s heart skip a beat!
[amazon asin=B009WH7IDE&template=*lrc ad (left)]I doubt it is in the air or the water, or the blood. A love of freedom, like love of family, is Humanity 101. That great sage Lady Gaga would say we are born that way, and she would be right. The question is what we do about it, and what the young-at-heart Scots have done is magnificent. The Scottish vote-count this past week is itself just a data point, and the more we look at what has been accomplished, the more we can celebrate where we are going in the liberty movement and actually getting there in our lifetimes.
The fearful 50% (accounting for vote fraud and the inevitable few who still believe everything they hear from official-looking men in suits on the set) have spoken in Scotland. They are afraid of not being taken care of. Admitting this is the first step in their liberation from their psychosomatic disease. Naming the fear is simply huge – and now they have done it. This vote has started a new angle on the conversation between generations that has been going on in every Scottish household for a long time, in some cases for well over 300 years.[amazon asin=0913966630&template=*lrc ad (right)]
The dependency-minded rallied in their fear and confessed a superficial loyalty to a distant and corrupt serf-holder – superficial because all these fearful and aged Scots would ever do, and can ever do, for London, is show up and vote. This is why the British high command keeps insisting that the “issue” is now settled for all time. In their view, it better be “finished” because the central state isn’t yet ready to invade, or to release the 4.6 million Scots to their own devices and monetary policy. Good to know, of course!
I can imagine that the great-grandmothers who voted to stay in a corrupt government that fails to represent them for cash, have one thing on their mind now. Making peace with their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. This will entail family get-togethers in homes and pubs, phone calls, email and social media sharing, and open arms, initiated very much by the “winning” side, the fearful ancients, and the just plain fearful. For [amazon asin=B00AEFXKUI&template=*lrc ad (left)]them, there is time now, and willingness to listen, because it is now safe to listen. The impending threat of liberty has passed, if only for a moment.
What will happen in Scotland, in fact what is already happening, post-vote, may be Robert Higgs’ ratcheting effect, inverted! Higgs demonstrates without a doubt how the state uses, and often designs and engineers security and societal crises to justify state growth, and once grown, never shrinks, but rather holds those gains like a ratchet grips and locks in place. But ideas have their own kind of creative impact, don’t they? And they come with their own protection and survivability, as we have all heard, “Ideas are bulletproof.” Secession, liberty, smaller governments, independence from distant capitols with their war mongering and raw wastage – Scots can never go back to where they were in this conversation. No one can, and of course, who would want to?
As the elderly (and the frightened 20-somethings) breathe a bit, post-vote, their ongoing need for security actually drives them to listen to their children (and their older siblings), and thus the arguments for an ostensible independence from a distant government (to be traded for a more local one) that already convinced nearly 50% of the living in Scotland, will get repeated hearings, across bars and kitchen tables.
I suspect, both sides will be genuinely interested in what their family members and neighbors have to say. I’d say more than a few conversions to independence will occur. We know that all eyes will be opened, and sensitivities sharpened, to every false move by the statists in Scotland, and to every new betrayal by London.
The frightened generations, in Scotland and everywhere else, are approaching a long, and I believe very rewarding, teachable moment. At least 45% of Scotland will be taking advantage of this moment for months and years to come. Making the whole world safe for decentralization, peace and prosperity is a big job. It starts at home, and God bless the liberty-loving Scots, once again, for their heart, their courage and their example!
[amazon asin=B009URXWWM&template=*lrc ad (left)]
[amazon asin=0990463109&template=*lrc ad (left)]
[amazon asin=B005S28ZES&template=*lrc ad (left)]
[amazon asin=BT00DDC7BK&template=*lrc ad (left)]
