08-07-2025
Myth of Scottish exceptionalism is why mediocrity reigns supreme
T here are two kinds of belief in Scottish exceptionalism but only one of them ever receives much attention. Nonetheless, the conviction that Scotland is uniquely blessed and persecuted meets its match in the view that Scotland, and Scottish politics, is uniquely hopeless and that, consequently, nothing good can ever happen here. Each view requires us to first believe that Scotland is in some sense special.
Myopia of this sort is common and hardly confined to Scotland, even if we suffer it acutely. Sometimes, however, one gains the sense that Scotland remains a land whose spirit animal is Private Frazer. 'We're doomed', for sure but — and this is important — we are more surely doomed than folk elsewhere who may be doomed themselves. What's more, we deserve it.
