I've been following the Scottish independence referendum with increasing interest for the past week or so. Finally got caught up tonight on Charlie's posts giving the background history and his reasons for voting "yes". As well as other perspectives. Down the rabbit hole...

Last night, I couldn't stop listening to this really rather disturbing This American Life episode, which chronicles a complete failure of small-scale democracy and checks and balances.

So, am I getting political in my old age? Maybe, but I think I mostly look at this stuff from a SFnal perspective. Not entirely a good thing, but at least it sometimes means thinking about the big picture and not getting caught up in the political mire. Also, I've otherwise had a hard time finding much good SF to read lately.

The last scene in that trainwreck of a school board gone bad TAL episode, with the black robed religious extremists marching from one part of their compound to the other to vote in the prescribed manner (in America ... in New Jersey for crying out loud) feels like it could be something straight out of Atwood.

Meanwhile, the 16 and 17 year old Scots going to vote in large numbers this morning, on the question of "Should this be an independent country?" ... that's a SF juvenile that I've never seen before!