RECONCILING ANY ONCE-UPON-A-TIME DREAMS OF INDEPENDENCE
(…with those existentialist imperatives-of-the-now realities)

Scots, of –wha’ha’e wi’ Wallace bled – persuasions, were all primed to have their recent referendum turn back the clock of some three hundred years of history to regain their erstwhile independence from the – United Kingdom -. An ironic twist to that history since it was a Scot (James IV) who created it, when, as successor to Queen Elizabeth I, he became King James I of that union (and later sponsor of a renowned scholarly work we know as – The King James Bible).

Such byzantine convolutions of Scottish and British history have always blurred any clear demarcations between their two kingdoms (regardless of any periodic French meddling in their squabbles), making it very difficult for their awakening from that history, and reconciling any once-upon-a-time dreams of independence…with those existentialist imperatives-of-the-now realities.

Scots, however, have always been a canny and prudently calculating folk, their reputation for wild unruliness notwithstanding, so, while they may have pined in their hearts for such dreams, they voted with their heads saying – NO – to them, instead.

Granted, this still leaves them bound to an economically and politically anemic, if not moribund, society; but, with a bit of wily inversion, the outcome of this referendum may be their golden opportunity to grab that matrix with typical Scots panache and verve…and properly shake it all up to revive it. After all, Scots were the key spark plugs driving the engines of such grand enterprises as –The Hudson’s Bay Co., the East India Co., and most of the commercial, military, and industrial powerhouses that helped create the British Empire, and even further, when it came to matters of banking and capital financing, Scots made the denizens of the City of London, and even the Gnomes of Zurich…seem like rank amateurs. This is not a biased perspective due to a wee bit of Scottishness in parts of our family lineage…but just a plain statement of fact.

Thus, if our Brit cousins have any smarts at all, they’ll latch on with both hands to such talents, and turn them loose to spark a “renaissance” for that combined kingdom of theirs. Meanwhile, their Prime Minister can now assure her majesty, the Queen, she need not worry about having to obtain visas just to visit Balmoral…any time soon.

CENTURION