Easter Road Stadium, Albion Place 2026
We naturally want to belong to families, communities and neighbourhoods; clubs and societies; congregations, networks and organisations. The list of names we use for such groups is extensive enough without naming every specific affiliation for each. Take football clubs, for example. There is one in almost every major city across the globe, and some cities, like Edinburgh, boast two.
Often belonging is about being part of something, and that is sufficient. Sometimes it is about being part of something against something else. A football supporter shares more than colours with thousands of strangers; they share a rivalry. Colleagues on a picket line share more than a workplace. People who struggle together often develop a bond that would be difficult to create through common interest alone.
Ferguson advanced the idea that humans strive to live in civilised and peaceful communities but equally, going to war also acts as an important cohesion. As uncomfortable as the thought was, he argued that both were essential for a well knit and ultimately stronger society. Two quotes summarise his position.
‘Without the rivalship of nations, and the practice of war, civil society itself could scarcely have found an object, or a form.’
'Could we at once, in the case of any nation, extinguish the emulation which is excited from abroad, we should probably break or weaken the bands of society at home.'
Ferguson himself was part of several groups in Edinburgh. The Oyster Club met in a tavern to discuss intellectual thoughts; the Select Society for debate and the Poker Club had a clear political objective.
Adam Smith and David Hume were members of such organisations, and while they debated ideas, they did not necessarily all agree.
Smith thought trade would bring societies together for the greater good. Ferguson’s emphasis was, ‘Mankind might have traded without any formal convention, but they cannot be safe without a national concert.’ In other words, trade needs no such bond but addressing a common threat does. Those who only experience a transactional relationship miss out on a range of feelings such as loyalty and trust. As Ferguson said, ‘he who has never struggled with his fellow-creatures, is a stranger to half the sentiments of mankind.’
Hume felt that rules such as justice came out of self interest, and that our capacity for sympathy towards others formed the glue to sustain society. Ferguson took the idea further by asking what made people stand together. His answer was that under pressure, affection can grow: ‘Sentiments of affection and friendship mix with animosity; the active and strenuous become the guardians of their society.’
Of the three men, who met at these associations and shared drinks on many occasions, the prevailing view is that each identified something useful that retains its relevance all these years later.
But it was the Poker Club that best illustrates Ferguson’s thoughts. Initially it was called The Militia Club, with the objective to pressure the British government to allow Scotland to establish its own militia, which had been refused partly out of concerns following the Jacobite rising of 1745. While it was not the intent to wage war against the English, there was a desire to be able to defend themselves against a foreign foe. After meeting a few times it was felt a less obvious name was needed and Ferguson is said to have suggested Poker as a metaphor for poking the fire of patriotic feeling to keep the cause alive.
Ferguson wrote his Essay on the History of Civil Society about five years after the Poker Club was formed and while there is nothing to say the idea was generated there, he was living it. Nor is it a great leap to extend his thoughts beyond a narrow vision of warfare. Today countries compete for resources and trade, and defend borders against immigration. Indeed, national unity is most visible at the World Cup, when complete strangers in a pub become united against a common opponent. Rivalry, in whatever form, still helps strengthen national identity. Ferguson would have recognised it on derby days when Hibs play Hearts: the rivalry that divides the city is also what binds each half of it together.