When friends suddenly become enemies, there are two likely reasons. Either you have balled up massively. Or conditions are extremely adverse and provide an irritated mood which tends to explode at the slightest little thing. In Scotland, the second seems to be the case, in the first place. I’ve been asked why I’m currently blogging so rarely. One answer is that everyone has a lot to do before Christmas; bills are piling up, aiming to be paid ultimately. But the other answer is, that for me – and not just for me – a certain disillusionment is spreading.

These days, I experience many Yes-supporters as being narrow-minded, stubborn and unyielding. On the one hand, they have every right to perseveringly insist in an actual implementation of changes that had been promised to all Scottish people pre-referendum and especially in the last days before September 18th by Darling, Cameron, Brown and Co. On the other hand, haste makes waste; in my honest opinion, the best example is the indyref outcome itself which could have been different if there had been less unanswered questions. Perhaps it would be more effective and above all: more constructive if concrete solutions for the problems which are most important for the Scots were developed rather than continually complaining about how bad everything is and what is not done. On top, it would be eligible if Yessers accepted for the time being that a referendum is a democratic decision and that the majority has voted for No. Technically, there are no Yessers or Noers left, just Scottish people and their future. Frittering away time, energy and financial resources in order to exact a new referendum makes little sense, if any at all. Actually, this wrangling over further referendi could make observers wonder whether this concern can be serious, to vote again and again until a result is achieved which is deemed to be the “right” one by a specific group. That’s hardly democracy, sorry.

The other half of the Scots, who have voted No for one reason or the other, show quite insufferable traits similarly. Some of them consider themselves – arrogant and smart-aleckly – to be the source of every truth and wisdom (on the “winner” side, of course), and they teach everyone and everything about what disasters would have happened if the result would have been different. Although no one really knows what would have happened, neither in the positive nor in the negative. And then they wrinkle their noses because their fellow citizens dare to make demands, put deficits in question instead of accepting them. Frankly, a Scotland with more fairness and less social inequalities which would be the fulfilled dream of many Yessers would be generally a good thing. But there might be or grow problems indeed, if requirements would front a lack of concepts and there would be room for the risk of punishing hard workers of every kind for their efforts instead of motivating all (!) to develop ambitions for better education and more proactivity.

Furthermore, some are so convinced that they have done the right thing by voting No that they close their ears, eyes and hearts for anything that might put their beliefs into question. More understanding from both sides for each other would be in duty. The picking on each other must end, it would be the right time for successive compromises on both sides and an active attempt to find solutions. Above all, everyone should begin to listen to others. Maybe indy-supporters would notice logical gaps in their considerations and learn about ways to fill them. And maybe indy-detractors would empathise about the reasons for dissatisfaction of their fellows which can serve as an approach for meaningful changes.

But all this does not happen and if so, only in miniature, in silence, in secret. Because on the wide public stage, one side leads a reproachful crusade for lofty goals that seem to be the only tangible argument, while the other side loses sympathies by shaking their heads and incapacitating their own neighbours and friends by calling them radical nationalists with a risky attitude.

And finally, there’s the media. According to my observations they are not conductive to deoxidise the situation. Bad news are best sellers, and so headings string big names’ accusations of big names together. What does that say about the fears and hopes of normal people and the development as such? Not much. It just continuely heats the mood. Until it explodes. And again. And again. And Scotland splits more and more.

And this is sobering, disillusioning. This makes the good image of a politically active and democratic Scotland which was left after the huge indyref turnout increasingly fade and fall apart. Bummer!

©Maria Pakura