As in ALL cultures, you have the noble and the yucky. Early America was settled by huge numbers of Scots. Mostly poor Scots. Large families were their currency. George Washington said that if he was in a jam, give him Scots to fight beside him. They were tough. My people married into Scots families in Virginia and North Carolina. In THOSE families, there were Scots Judges, Generals and Senators. Upstanding citizens. Also in those families, were Slave Catchers, and Mercenaries.
You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a Scotsman in say 1800 east coast America. My people moved North and West. They continued to serve in all of America’s major wars, but they did not retain the “Clannish” prejudices that flourished and remained in the South. The difference is night and day. My line that left the South, couldn’t be any more different than the distant family relatives who had stayed in the South for generations. Those who have little, often appropriate anything that makes them feel better about themselves, be it kilt or MAGA hat. The kilt and dirk are about as authentic as a two-gun drugstore cowboy. The South built their identity on myths and they still try to live those myths in a world that says, hey, Slavery,racism, and subjugation wasn’t and isn’t noble. You LOST the Civil War. The South ISN’T going to rise again, unless it changes its ways. By the rampant Covid deaths, they haven’t changed to their OWN detriment.
No, the fools prancing around in kilts and knee socks don’t represent the people of Scotland. Just in a cartoonish attention whore sort of way. Unfortunately, economics has even led Scotland to enable the myth by supplying kilts to more Americans than were ever worn in Scotland! We’ve ended up in an era of playing “Braveheart” by people who are desperate to feel good about themselves. Trump added a MAGA hat to the kilt, and there you go…an Amalgamated America…that never existed in reality.
October 17, 2021 @ 3:26 pm
As in ALL cultures, you have the noble and the yucky. Early America was settled by huge numbers of Scots. Mostly poor Scots. Large families were their currency. George Washington said that if he was in a jam, give him Scots to fight beside him. They were tough. My people married into Scots families in Virginia and North Carolina. In THOSE families, there were Scots Judges, Generals and Senators. Upstanding citizens. Also in those families, were Slave Catchers, and Mercenaries.
You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a Scotsman in say 1800 east coast America. My people moved North and West. They continued to serve in all of America’s major wars, but they did not retain the “Clannish” prejudices that flourished and remained in the South. The difference is night and day. My line that left the South, couldn’t be any more different than the distant family relatives who had stayed in the South for generations. Those who have little, often appropriate anything that makes them feel better about themselves, be it kilt or MAGA hat. The kilt and dirk are about as authentic as a two-gun drugstore cowboy. The South built their identity on myths and they still try to live those myths in a world that says, hey, Slavery,racism, and subjugation wasn’t and isn’t noble. You LOST the Civil War. The South ISN’T going to rise again, unless it changes its ways. By the rampant Covid deaths, they haven’t changed to their OWN detriment.
No, the fools prancing around in kilts and knee socks don’t represent the people of Scotland. Just in a cartoonish attention whore sort of way. Unfortunately, economics has even led Scotland to enable the myth by supplying kilts to more Americans than were ever worn in Scotland! We’ve ended up in an era of playing “Braveheart” by people who are desperate to feel good about themselves. Trump added a MAGA hat to the kilt, and there you go…an Amalgamated America…that never existed in reality.