Posts Tagged ‘Scottish society’
Doubts Even Here: The Potential of Doubt in the Age of Certainty
Gerry Hassan
Scottish Review, June 26th 2019
The world at the moment is in a state of flux. Yet everywhere there is assertion and statements that imply certainty and do not allow for any doubt.
Doubt is central to being human. Galileo once said, ‘Doubt is the father of invention’. There is the personal doubt many of us experience – the inner voice that measures yourself by impossible standards. And there is the wider collective, societal and social doubt that poses that true faith and blind belief might not be the best way to think about things or organise societies.
I have always had doubt. My inner doubt comes in two forms: the emotional and intellectual – with the former in part originating in my experience of the Scottish state education system that never – in the past – focused on building confidence and social skills. That system for much of its history did not really know how to positively nurture bright working class children. It knew negatively what to do for too long; to prepare them as gently as possible for a life of disappointment, defeat and dashed dreams. And if that didn’t work it could always engage in punishment. As a counterbalance to all this, the element of intellectual doubt and my own sense of curiosity, desire to know about the world and to question things, originated in my parents encouragement of these qualities, and their belief in challenging authority. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Seven Up’, Class and Modern Scotland
Gerry Hassan
Scottish Review, June 12th 2019
Last week saw a significant moment in TV programming when ITV broadcast the latest in the legendary series ‘Seven Up’, namely ’63 Up’. Michael Apted began first as a researcher then Director tracking fourteen seven year olds in 1964 and has subsequently returned to them every seven years since.
Over the past 55 years one of the fourteen has died (Lynn) and two have withdrawn leaving us with eleven people who contributed to the current edition of this bold experiment in broadcasting and social history. ’63 Up’ is reality TV in its true meaning rather than the self-declared faux ‘reality TV’ of the likes of ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Love Island’.
The series tells us many things about not just the individuals in question and their lives, but wider society. A soft, unstated idealism – or perhaps more accurately, a sense of public duty and care – informs the entire series to this day and is present in the current installment.
The ‘Seven Up’ series has a respect and humanity sadly rare in today’s TV. There is a trust and set of deeply embedded relationships between Apted and his interview subjects. The central characters who give the programme its purpose and uniqueness are shown a degree of respect and affection which is a rare commodity in the increasingly harsh, exploitative world of ‘reality TV’. Read the rest of this entry »
The Story of Rose Reilly: A Scottish Football Pioneer
Gerry Hassan
Scottish Review, May 29th 2019
Scottish football is on the way up – at the international level, in quality, achievements and in its recognition by others. Our national team has just beaten the mighty Brazil for the first time ever, and if that were not enough, has qualified after a long fallow period for the World Cup finals taking place this summer in France.
This is not some parallel universe or fantasy Scotland, but actually what is happening now in women’s football which is currently undergoing a renaissance, and belatedly beginning to get the recognition it has long deserved.
It has been a long and difficult journey to get to this. Previously the Scottish women’s game was marginalised, patronised, dismissed, and even, the subject of banning for much of the 20th century, which denied at least two generations of talented women the opportunity to play football at a senior level in this country. Read the rest of this entry »
The importance of hearing the sounds of silence
Gerry Hassan
Scottish Review, April 24th 2019
Art Garfunkel performed in Glasgow on Easter Sunday; in an age filled with what seems to be incessant noise, it has never been more critical than to listen to seek out, and listen to, the sounds of silence. Despite everything, they can be found.
Years ago when I was thinking about public debate I read A.L. Kennedy’s first book ‘Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains’ – which has in it a passage which is an evocative hymn to the power and prevalence of silence. Kennedy wrote that in even the most noise-filled space there were gaps and silences, and these were as important as the noises. It changed how I thought of debate from then on.
Recently I came across Paul Goodman’s ‘Speaking and Language’ and in exploring silence he writes: ‘Not speaking and speaking are both human ways of being in the world and there are kinds and grades of each’. He then goes on to identify nine different types of silence, which is revealing, but not exhaustive. He does not discuss for example whether silence is consenting or non-consenting, something freely entered into, or imposed by others. Read the rest of this entry »
How can we change the declining fortunes of Scottish football?
Gerry Hassan
Scottish Review, April 10th 2019
Scottish football last week witnessed the regular circus of an Old Firm match. It was the usual pantomime of bad feeling and nastiness, with two Rangers players sent off and Celtic captain Scott Brown assaulted. Both clubs, Rangers manager Steven Gerrard and Brown were charged by the football authorities, while three football supporters were stabbed with one seriously injured – which was downplayed by most fans and media.
This unedifying drama and reflection of the worst of Scotland regularly comes around: with the two clubs sometimes meeting up to six times a season, all adding to the mutual hatred, obsession and co-dependency (which gives sustenance to the term Old Firm). Unacceptable behaviour doesn’t stop there with the recent Hearts v Hibs Edinburgh derby marred by flares thrown on to the pitch and racist abuse.
The Old Firm match came for those charged with running the game as a welcome distraction from its lamentable state, and the humiliation of the Scottish men’s international team who had crashed 3-0 to Kazakhstan, and then struggled to beat San Marino, rated the worst team in the world, 2-0. Read the rest of this entry »
