The Time for Thinking is Over?

At the beginning of the great documentary series of the 1970s, The World at War the narrator, Laurence Olivier, intones as we watch how the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany that "the time for thinking is over."

These words came into my mind as I read Alex Massie's article in The Spectator this week about how the SNP has replaced the Church of Scotland as the dominant voice of "being Scottish" in Scotland today. I'm not sure how correct Massie is in his "replacement theology" but he does hit on one truth – that for many people Scottish independence and the Scottish nationalism that seeks it is now a quasi-religious faith rather than a matter of rational thought for many of its followers.

Independence becomes heaven, unionists are heretics opposed to the true faith, the way to salvation is by faith in the SNP alone and they are the sole guardians of the Nation's eternal life. Outside the SNP, for many, there is no salvation. Any facts which suggest that independence may not be heavenly bliss or that there are other paths to heaven can be dismissed as lies of the devil. Any SNP speaker in any debate is automatically the winner because of who they are and what they stand for rather than what they actually say.

Now let me be clear that I am not comparing the modern SNP with the Nazis, though there were historic links between Scottish nationalists and European fascists in the 1930s and 1940s. Clearly that would be as absurd as comparing the Labour Party to the Soviet Communist Party because both are socialist parties.

What is comparable though, because I would argue it is inherent in all nationalism, is the elevation of emotion over reason, the Romantic idea of the Nation as "sacred" community, often accompanied by the idea of hidden power within the Nation which needs to be liberated from an imagined oppressor who is blame for suppressing this hidden strength, and who needs to be removed in order for the Nation to flourish.

This is why the SNP often speaks as if it is Scotland and the Scottish people and to be against the SNP is to be against Scotland. I genuinely believe it is not about arrogance; it's just the inevitable mindset of nationalism: the interests of nationalists and the Nation are indivisible and inseparable even conceptually. This is how nationalists genuinely think.

Admittedly, this is not the case for every SNP supporter. For many independence is viewed as a rational choice to achieve a better society and I totally respect that. I genuinely believe that folk in this category would support unionism if they believed it would lead to a better society (as I do). But that is far from being the case for everyone. For many (and this includes the SNP leadership), from what I have observed in the past six months, independence is a matter of faith rather than reason, a matter of the heart not the head. Such people want independence no matter what the consequences. Echoing the words of Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost, they would rather rule in hell than serve in heaven.

The opinion polls point towards the SNP gaining anywhere from 30–50 out of 59 seats at the General Election. The nationalist faith is in the ascendancy. For many Scots – too many I fear – it seems the time for thinking is over once again.