Good Morning Scotland
Radio Scotland
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
Good morning
The future, we’re told, will look like the past. It’s what the prophet Isaiah was talking about when he peered ahead to the day when “..the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” This seems also to be the conclusion of a series of essays written by a group of eminent persons under the heading ‘Reducing Carbon Emissions – Scotland in 2050” The country will be whipped by storms as the climate changes, the Saint Andrew’s golf course will have fallen into the churning sea and easy air travel will be a thing of the past. But Scots, we are told, will be happier. Sharing lifts in cars powered by a more modest supply of petrol we will content ourselves with the company of our immediate communities – our families and friends. Democracy will be reborn as will our investment in the local community. We will be mostly vegetarian.
Missing from this picture are bards and wise women but I’m sure they’re there in the fine print.
It reminds me of the final feast scene which appeared in each edition of Asterix the Gaul – the whole community gathered at a circular table. On a darker note, it also reminds me of my grandfather’s extended family all living together on one farm during the Great Depression in Canada – no Golden Age – except maybe for the children who didn’t know how much had been lost in the process.
But as naïve as this portrayal of Primitive Utopia might be – and while the idea of modern people turning their back on the larger world and binding themselves to their village is not without a troubling ethical dimension, it’s good to see it suggested here that we are sturdy folk. In this week following Canadian Thanksgiving I’m heartened by the thought that joy and thankfulness issue from a state of mind and not from full hands and abundant treasures. Whatever threat the future may present, we can still live well with less.
