If
you think about it, there are two types of promises:
One
is the promise someone makes to you …
The
other is the promise you make to someone else ...
“The
Vow” was an example of the first type, a promise someone made to
you.
David
Cameron, Ed Milliband and Nick Clegg made the people of Scotland a
promise.
It
is very easy to make a promise, what is important however is whether
you can trust who is making the promise.
In
the video clip you have just watched, I asked that when you think
about “The Vow”, and the promises you were made, you should begin
to think about the promises made on the bits of paper issued by banks
– they are “promissory notes” - the banks are asking you to
trust that they will keep their promises.
When
a bank makes its promises – do you believe that there will –
never - come a time when they might break that promise?
When
the piece of paper contains a promise made by a Chief Executive
Officer, who is no longer the Chief Executive, on behalf of a Board
of Directors, which no longer exists – has it ever struck you that
you should question whether it will or can be honoured?
I
don't want to labour the point – I think it is clear enough –
when someone makes you a promise, the first thing you should consider
is whether you believe they will keep their promise.
Last
August, I made my promise, I signed it in front of witnesses, and to
show that I would honour my promise, I placed a £1.00 coin in a
bottle.
Others
at that meeting in Rutherglen, also made a promise, signed it in
front of witnesses, and to show that they would also honour their
promises, they too placed a £1.00 coin in a bottle.
That
has also happened at Yes East Kilbride, Yes Blantyre, South Ayrshire
Common Weal, Yes Garnock Valley and West Kilbride, Yes Orkney, and at
the Unchain the Unicorn event in Edinburgh.
Each
of the individual bottles containing those coins have then be taken
to the Scottish Parliament, and placed into the safe keeping of the
First Minister of Scotland.
Last
Saturday at the Scottish Independence Convention in Glasgow, Jason
Baird of the Indy/App made his promise, as did others, more
promises were made, and signed, more £1.00 coins collected, and like
those before, they will be taken to the Scottish Parliament and
placed into the safe keeping of the First Minister of Scotland.
No
Scottish Hand notes (those you can see examples of on Facebook) will
be issued unless – a promise has been signed, and a £1.00 coin has
been committed, and which is held in the safe keeping of the First
Minister.
My
first question: If you were given a choice (and I hope very soon you
will be) of a piece of paper with a promise from a bank – or – a
piece of paper with a promise made by a fellow resident of Scotland,
a promise already kept and fully backed – which would you trust
more?
Currencies,
of whatever kind, no matter their name, no matter where in the world
they come from are all about trust.
When
as has happened many times before, and as we all witnessed most
recently in 2008, when trust is lost, when it is realised that the
promises that have been made will not be honoured, banks crash, other
institutions also head to the brink of collapse – trust is lost,
trust in regulators is lost, trust in Governments is lost.
When
Currencies lose trust – they may not be worth the paper they are
written on. Just like Vows.
My
next questions:
Is
it not well past time that we stopped accepting promises that may not
be kept?
Is
now the time when we make our promises to ourselves and to all the
generations to come after us, and no matter the obstacles we may face
– that we live up to and honour our promises?
Who
else will do it, if not us?
On the promise I personally made and signed last August are two
quotations:
You have to be the change you wish to see.
-----------
If many little people, in many little places, do many little things,
they
can change the face of the world.
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Is it you, is it me, or is it all of us, we the many little people,
in our many little places
are we to be the change we want to see?
If not us – who?
If not now – when?
The next post on this blog, and the next clip on Facebook, will
address “Are we too wee, too poor, too stupid?”
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