Some great philosophers have tackled the question of the American identity. One has pointed out that Americans do not have a "folk soul", a cultural identity coming out of the distant past, but that instead, Americans are forming their identity intentionally, hence all the internal dialog and dispute.

Links back to England, Germany and Ireland go undisputed in the United States, but Scotland gets short shrift. If Jock had emigrated here, I would suspect his children and grandchildren might feel differently from the way he does now, and he would be glad of that.