Toxic winners
Scotland has suffered another blow to its poor social cohesion after a major "agent of polarisation" and de-assimilation achieved success (once again) in the country's most popular sportn namely football.
For centuries Scotland has suffered from a dysfunctional, fractured, and violent social culture, based on ethnic deep and possibly irreconcilable divisions between "Post-Protestants" and "Post-Catholics" (mainly of Irish origin). Neither group, it should be stressed, is actually religious, as only around one-in-twenty Scottish people are active/regular churchgoers (e.g., attending at least monthly or weekly).
These "sectarian" divisions, and in particular the non-assimilation of Post Catholics, are maintained through Scotland's football league system and its dominance by two teams, Rangers and Celtic, both of which are embodiments of hatred for the other side.
No other football team has won the Scottish league (now known as the Scottish Premier League) since 1985, and every year the success of either one of these teams revives and deepens the fractures in Scottish society, leading to a country typified by a creeping sense of alienation. This in turn feeds into a wide array of social problems, ranging from drug addiction, public drunkenness, vandalism, litter, and knife crime that puts even London's Afro-Caribbean community in the shade. The city of Glasgow has suffered particularly badly from this blight.
This year there was hope that this polarising pattern could be broken by a relatively normal third team winning the Scottish Premier League, after the Edinburgh-based Hearts of Midlothian FC dominated for most of the season. But unfortunately, on the final day of league football, a late goal by Celtic's Japanese import Daizen Maeda allowed the agent of polarisation to defeat Hearts 2-1 and thus clinch the championship, thus ensuring another season of toxic polarisation in Scottish society.
For centuries Scotland has suffered from a dysfunctional, fractured, and violent social culture, based on ethnic deep and possibly irreconcilable divisions between "Post-Protestants" and "Post-Catholics" (mainly of Irish origin). Neither group, it should be stressed, is actually religious, as only around one-in-twenty Scottish people are active/regular churchgoers (e.g., attending at least monthly or weekly).
These "sectarian" divisions, and in particular the non-assimilation of Post Catholics, are maintained through Scotland's football league system and its dominance by two teams, Rangers and Celtic, both of which are embodiments of hatred for the other side.
No other football team has won the Scottish league (now known as the Scottish Premier League) since 1985, and every year the success of either one of these teams revives and deepens the fractures in Scottish society, leading to a country typified by a creeping sense of alienation. This in turn feeds into a wide array of social problems, ranging from drug addiction, public drunkenness, vandalism, litter, and knife crime that puts even London's Afro-Caribbean community in the shade. The city of Glasgow has suffered particularly badly from this blight.
Celtic fans, alienated from their social environment by Scotland's dysfunctional football culture
This year there was hope that this polarising pattern could be broken by a relatively normal third team winning the Scottish Premier League, after the Edinburgh-based Hearts of Midlothian FC dominated for most of the season. But unfortunately, on the final day of league football, a late goal by Celtic's Japanese import Daizen Maeda allowed the agent of polarisation to defeat Hearts 2-1 and thus clinch the championship, thus ensuring another season of toxic polarisation in Scottish society.
Partick Thistle, the Neokrat-approved team for Glaswegians to support
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