The New Nihilism

Perhaps understandably there’s not a lot of hope about. In the post-Coronation melancholy, witnessing the repression of the most basic of our political rights, in the shadow of the shambles of Nicola Sturgeon’s departure, in the absence of any credible political alternative and having to bathe in the waters of a reactionary media pool, there seems precious little to be positive about.

Hard political realities mean that much of the optimism and idealism that fuelled a political movement for the past ten years or so (2013-2023) has gone. A movement that was characterised by a vivid and radical imagination, that broke barriers and created new ways of organising has dissipated, broken down by waves of disappointment, failure, bad strategy and an intransigent British state. Some of that is ‘our’ fault. Not all. Naturally people are disappointed and disoriented, It’s clearly the time for complete re-appraisal, self-assessment and re-thinking strategy from the bottom-up. Accepting defeat and the impossibility of once-thought-certain strategies is essential.

But from within our own movement there is now a strand of thinking that is so deeply nihilistic, that it has nothing to offer except bile and conspiracy and vitriol. This is from elements (dregs) of the Yes movement that purports to be for radical change, but in reality opposes any change at all. Some of this element have gone from being the most diehard faithful supporters of the SNP to now thinking of that political party as the devil incarnate. They have gone from believing the SNP were liberators and demi-gods to believing them to be working for the security services.

On almost any proposed legislative change from Holyrood there is now a cacophony of noise from former Yes supporters united in voice with their former Unionist opponents. The consensus is that the Scottish Government is useless, that Ministers are awful, that the SNP is talentless, that all legislation is a con or a farce or unworkable, and that the whole of Scottish society is riddled with corruption – that has infiltrated from the top of the legal profession right through to NGOs, charities and the Third Sector.

This ranges from the Bottle Deposit Return Scheme to the Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAS), from Gender Reform legislation to the proposal of the creation of a specialist sexual offences court and a pilot of judge-only trials for rape cases. All are cobbled together and deemed wildly irrational, dangerous, radical and poorly drafted. They are (all) further evidence that the Scottish political elite is out of touch and incompetent. The nihilist tendency I am beginning to describe often further suggests that such legislation should be struck down by Westminster, despite having been voted through by large majorities and cross-party support. Here we get to the awkward bit where elements of the pro-independence movement are effectively anti-Holyrood which they see as full of ‘traitors’ ‘troughers’ ‘Yoons’ (and so on, and on). This new nihilism doesn’t really have any alternatives, or credible pathways nor does it lead to a healthy scepticism about the limitations of parliamentary politics or cynicism about professional politicians, it just rages into clickbait heaven.

Some of this fetid narrative has its origins in the Salmond trial and the conspiracies that spiralled from it.

Craig Murray intones: “Eight months ago I warned that the reason Sturgeon appointed the unionist Dorothy Bain as Lord Advocate – over numerous better qualified pro-Independence KCs – was that Bain would support abolition of juries. I do wish people would listen to me. Sigh.”

On his blog Murray talks of a ‘troughocracy’ and a gravy-train: “Pop into any bistro on Byres Road in Glasgow, and you will find it replete with people from NGOs or the “creative industries”, keeping their bills to submit to some Scottish Government branch or agency or funded organisation” he explains. Incandescent he thunders: “You will find Scottish government-funded environmental groups advocating for Highly Protected Marine Areas. You will find swarms of the public funded self-righteous advocating to ban alcohol advertising.”

I mean, sure there really are environmental groups advocating protection of the seabed, and yes there are health groups lobbying for regulation of the promotion of alcohol. Who knew?

Among the horrors of the Third Sector are – wait for it – Rape Crisis Scotland. Murray is wholly triggered by any proposal to improve convictions. He writes: “Rape Crisis Scotland is almost entirely Scottish Government funded. In that circular policy making, its chief executive Sandy Brindley has played a key role in formulating and promoting Lady Dorrian’s proposals to abolish juries in sexual assault trials … the official Jury Trials Working Group contains three third sector organisations funded by the Scottish government which accordingly support the abolition of juries – Rape Crisis Scotland, Women’s Aid Scotland and Victim Support Scotland.”

Murray’s analysis is deeply effected by his views on the (very very different) cases of Alex Salmond, Dominique Strauss Khan and Julian Assange.

He writes: “As soon as the radical left pose the slightest threat to the neo-con establishment, an army of feminists can be relied upon to run a concerted campaign to undermine any progress the left wing might make.”

“Feminism has become the main attack tool in the neo-con ideological arsenal. I am sceptical the concept can be redeemed from this.”

“The Sheridan case, the DSK case and the Assange case have all brought to the fore the true ugliness of sex negative feminism and man hatred, and the extent to which they made inroads into our culture and society just as insidious as the right wing propaganda of the Murdochs. They have also shown how those right wing forces can so easily hijack stupid blinkered man haters to the right wing agenda.”

“Blinkered man haters”.

The issue of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAS) is another case in point. The idea of alienating, or separating coastal communities from the sea itself is nonsensical. The consultation has been badly played. No real change can come from on high and this particular set of ideas have been poorly managed imho. But equally we are facing such a crisis of biodiversity and destruction and pollution of the seabed that real change needs to come. The dark irony of this situation is that there are lots of ideas about how we can combat this. Restricting dredging, banning salmon farms, encouraging sustainable fishing and small-scale lobster, crab and prawn catch, investing in seaweed harvesting and restorative practices such as mussel farming are all staring us in the face. Offshore community renewables, and – yes – improving ferry services are all possible ways to connect and enhance coastal communities economics. But we are facing such a level of ecological meta-crisis that the idea that we can go ahead with ‘no-change’ is just laughable.  If we were actually facing the real changes we need to make about the climate crisis people would be shocked. None of the changes on the table are anywhere near what we need to do. None are serious. People are unprepared for what’s coming, and that is a massive failure of political leadership.

We now have a phalanx of former Yes supporters want no change, see no possibility of change, oppose everything but have no alternative. This is a weird place to be. We can and should acknowledge the crisis we are in – the political failures of the incumbent SNP – but also create new pathways and strategies for change and reject a nihilism of everything.

Writing in the Guardian Katherine Sangster, head of the Scottish Fabians writes: “The Scottish Fabians have also conducted focus groups with previous SNP voters who are now undecided in key seats. It is clear that none felt the time was right for another independence referendum. These voters are struggling to make ends meet, heat their homes and access healthcare. They told us they were on the fence about who to support in a general election, but it is clear they are desperate for change.”

Yet Keir Starmer has today announced that he is opposed to redistribution and will run on a programme of ‘Blairism on steroids’. How Scottish Labour supporters can reconcile  this with the reality of the cost of living crisis is beyond me.

The Scottish left, the green left and the independence movement need to unite in a new prospectus that creates new routes to radical change. Let’s do that.