Now that the UK populace have made their sentiments clear in the recent election
it might be worth reflecting on the Scottish character as opposed to the English
Terry Eagleton on What Price Liberty? How Freedom Was Won and Is Being Lost by Ben Wilson
Faber, 480 pp, £14.99, June 2009, ISBN 978 0 571 23594 0
David Hume once remarked that the English had the least national character of any people in the universe. Perhaps this was a cunning Scottish put-down, since character is just what the English pride themselves on. They may not bestride the world in intellect, cuisine or emotional intimacy, but these fancy pursuits can be left to foreigners, and don’t count for much compared to their own moral robustness. At the core of this moral character lies the spirit of liberty: liberty not as the lawlessness of the anarchic French or the self-realising Geist of the high-minded Germans, but liberty as the right to be cussedly, bloody-mindedly oneself
it might be worth reflecting on the Scottish character as opposed to the English
Faber, 480 pp, £14.99, June 2009, ISBN 978 0 571 23594 0
David Hume once remarked that the English had the least national character of any people in the universe. Perhaps this was a cunning Scottish put-down, since character is just what the English pride themselves on. They may not bestride the world in intellect, cuisine or emotional intimacy, but these fancy pursuits can be left to foreigners, and don’t count for much compared to their own moral robustness. At the core of this moral character lies the spirit of liberty: liberty not as the lawlessness of the anarchic French or the self-realising Geist of the high-minded Germans, but liberty as the right to be cussedly, bloody-mindedly oneself
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