Scottish Independence Vote

Scottish Independence Yesterday the Scots in Scotland down to sixteen year olds voted 55 to 45 percent not to leave their ancient and difficult alliance with England to become independent. And as someone in New Zealand relating to both England which my grandfather having fought for England in the Great War and thus visiting where briefly educated at Oxford University; The Royal Fling Coup taught flight theory- before brave fliers went out to invariably have their light craft crash in an uncontrollable spin or worse- have the engine cut out at maximum revs just on the point of attempting to take off- Where was I got lost there- England: Home: well yes there was in those who went back- having established something better here in New Zealand- we began by the start of the 20th century to see that we could and would and had achieved a greater level of comfort, government, social unity, and new style for ourselves at the ends of the earth than could ever be achieved in England the Mother Country. And the quotation that follows tries to explain the process in America’s Virginia colony leading to the ill advised and illogical 1775 and 1776 Declarations of Independence signed by 13 rebellious colonial territories- Well a much better process is what we saw in Scotland yesterday- Put it to the vote- And Yes England will/has acknowledged in the case of her relationship with Scotland, with New Zealand that while we have an ancient alliance there are differences and the outer parts of our union work better when there is freedom given for us to grow in different ways…. What if- What if there had been No American Rebellion of 1776. You see unknown to the author of the quote which you will be reading next was what happened in New York in July of 1863. The terror of USA spinning completely out of control actually happened in the very worst conflict fought in the American Not Very Civil War- happened in New York and with better military leadership and political leadership of the mob from the Lower East Side of Manhattan the entire fabric of the Union could have in that potential victory been remade for the interests of New York business and their Southern Slave owning interests which is what the war was all about. That is the bigger unexplored worthy of a 1200 page novel- or series of novels- Historical Revision –‘what if’ of American history- You know on the Monday night of that conflict fought in New York there were a number of serious fires burning out of control as the mob set fires and stopped the under equipped Republican Supporting Bowery Boys; Brave firemen from getting to the fires –And supernaturally massive thunder storms deluged across the lower parts of Manhattan and the city was saved. And then going back to the rebellion against Great Britain developing out of the bit of paper written by Thomas Jefferson which famously has the small g for ‘natures god’ to justify that- the largest British naval invasion up until the Falkland War was into New York harbor. New York was in that period burnt over by another out of control fire- devastated and would have been abandoned had it not been the foremost location. While the British lost that war because of a technical issue in their ship building causing their ships to sink of their own accord- leading to their generals not being able to by force of numbers defeat General Washington’s local ill equipped men. ‘For America was born of revolution of a republic set against a monarchy. It was composed of men who broke oaths to assert their wishes. It used armed insurrection and occasional personal violence. But having suffered it’s revolution-seen in England of the time more of a rebellion than as a fundamental turning over of the old order- the new country set its mind to avoiding if possible, a repetition of the excesses of revolution for all time (One of the many ironies which comes from this is in Vietnam where in 1945 American officials arranged for Harvard aircraft to overfly the Independence celebration of Primer Ho Chi Min where the Vietnamese used the American Declaration of Independence as their template for pulling away from French colonial rule- but then turning against the Vietnamese and supporting the re-entry of France into Vietnam USA became heavily involved in the Vietnam War of her own making of immense ongoing cost to both USA and Vietnam the relationship devastated by the lives lost in war) It was an act of reason and an act of will, and this one calculated act of creation was in fact the sweetest and most reasonable and most fecund act of revolution in history (Is the author speaking ironically knowing who will read what he writes?) It was a revolution incited and planned by Northern merchants and intellectuals (And the ‘business side of the equation is fundamental to understanding American policy and politics) It was conducted largely by country gentlemen of Virginia by established magistrates, by clerks intoxicated by the 18th century (The Age of Reason- A Deist Theology that kicked God up to heaven so man would decide his own reasoned logical scientific way) by the solid leaders of small communities. But what emerged was not a new naked country struggling to find an identity and a way of life. It was an English revolution (England herself had had a very bloody one of those in mid 17th century and we still close to England know about that because the issues of the Cromwell Parliament and the Restoration of Charles 2nd still work in the way that England operates or we breaking that operate in New Zealand) approved by Englishmen at ‘home’, conducted by Englishmen subject to the same intellectual influences that beat on England. In fact the United States came into being fully grown. It already the heir of great traditions with which as much claim to Chaucer and his peers as any Londoner. Its leaders were not raw colonialists. In fact they had amongst them a group of men among the greatest of their time, not singled voiced- they even divided on some fundamentals- but a rare and marvelous coincidence of reluctant revolutionaries of thinkers and doers that could not have been equaled in any country of the time (You have to see the year this was written- 1964 and what had happened to the British economy and where Britain was getting export opportunities and the politics of the USA-Great Britain Alliance to see why the author is ‘all gush’. No one in the future will ever write of the relationship in the ‘rebellion of 1776’ like this again So Enjoy!) If there was an act of God, then this was it, and the United States started with spiritual capital that has not yet been spent…..they believed that tyranny was the ultimate evil was avoidable- and they included the mindless mob in their list of tyrants. They believed in real freedom, if properly established and properly protected, was possible and that under this freedom man would achieve his highest good. They believed that government was a moral act. They believed in a permissive society- always accepting the essential checks on the innate beastliness of man. They believed that their country had no ambitions except to cultivate its own estates; (This last line has considerable difficulties for the geo-political realities of North America in 1776. Vast areas were under effective Native Indian American ownership and control. The Russians, French, British and Dutch had or would have or in the past had control of areas of colonial interest. The international slave trade was an essential part of the economy. So who was ‘they’ and really did those who had the land in 1776 continue to hold ‘their estates’ or did they lose their lands? Or as slaves working those estates- gain anything from that effort? And finally the vast land had been exploited would the Americans move on to attempt to gain other peoples lands and resources such as –say Iraqi oil in 2003?) –which were admittedly vast enough to satisfy any imperial power. (Part of the American Myth of Innocence is that USA has never had an empire or acts as an Imperial Tyrant. But just exploring the geo politics of North American in terms of economic trade and money flows- One State of the Union called herself the Empire/Imperial State and even by 1930 had a building called that. New York Empire State- later claiming the title as ‘Capital of the World’- we see Empire State succeed by the now collapsed World Trade Towers as the –well in my current tourist guide- Must See place in USA.) … With life liberty and the pursuit of happiness came the stern obligations and careful limitations. All this was an afterthought to their English rejection of England. But it was the sort of thought put into practice that England could not have achieved.’ Page 10/11 Patrick O’Donvan as found in ‘The Practical Idealists’ Time Life World Library 1965.