Tradition vs. Orthodoxy

[DWFII]

I think that maybe the point being made by the OP is that current fashion of kilts, while indeed fashion and not tradition, is still contributing to the preservation of the tradition. A tradition must evolve in order to continue to exist, else it come to an end and become historical.

I don't think we know what makes a tradition durable or what will affect it over time. I don't think that we can say....with the best of intentions, with the most optimistic anticipation....if, or what, fashions will be folded into the mix that is a tradition. I suspect, that at best, it is projecting. Projecting our own hopes and desires. At worst, it's just living in a fantasy world.

Looking back at human history...at what I know of cultures and society and human nature...I don't believe, or see any evidence, that a tradition has to evolve to be a tradition. All it has to do is be respected and valued enough to be carried on by the next generation.

There's a striking parallel here that the folks over inthe Historical Kilt sub-forum recognize very well: many folks are not happy with history the way it is...the way it actually played out...as opposed to the way they wish it had played out. They want so badly to believe that William Wallace wore a kilt that they refuse to accept the evidence that kilts were not worn or known until hundreds of years after he was born and died. Their mental image is so firmly anchored in fantasy that no amount of scholarly research, no lack of even fragmentary evidence, will deter them.

I don't understand it, myself.

I don't know what glamour or cachet that "Tradition"--the word itself--brings such that people will deliberately misconstrue the English language to bestow some form of legitimacy on their choices.

So what if wearing a MUG is not Traditional? So what if by some lights a MUG isn't even a real kilt? So what? It is what it is.

If a person derives pleasure or a feeling of comfort...even metaphysical comfort...from wearing a denim kilt or a leather kilt or even white hose (a metaphor not an example), who is to gainsay them?

But it's not Tradition/Traditional.

And to try to make it so...to pilfer respect from an association that doesn't really exist...is to weaken the whole notion that MUGs have a legitimacy of their own apart from some form of iconoclasm/heterodoxy.


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