Interesting piece from Gerry Hassan who sees the debate over Scotland’s future as sterile, managerialist and devoid of any real emotional sense of what that future might be:
The next two years will be shaped by hope, optimism, fear and anxiety, by the full gambit of human emotions and responses, and none of these are wrong. Whether pro or anti-independence, none of these are the product of false consciousness.
Where are the pictures of our compelling stories about the future of Scotland? So far neither the ‘Yes Scotland’ or ‘Better Together’ campaigns have decided to articulate such a vision. Instead, both have gone for the modern day technocratic, managerialist approach of trying to appear reasonable and sane, while discounting a more passionate approach.
Somehow we have to bring into the debate the Scots imagination in order to better describe the different Scotlands of the future of independence and the union. We need to have stories which connect with all our different emotions: to feel and understand our hopes, doubts and fears.
Is this possible in the Scotland of today? After forty years of contemporary constitutional debate we should be able finally to raise the political and emotional appeal of our politics.
It put me mind of one of these posters, digital postcards I saw fleetingly on Google Plus yesterday, which said something: “The future belongs to Geeks, because no one else wants it”.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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