Reality Check

[Riverkilt]

They will all feel kilted when they hear your piping.

[Cygnus]

Don't confuse the kilt with pride in your culture....

I didn't mean to imply that strapping on a kilt would revive this sense of pride (though it does seem to work for some), and that isn't all I am doing. I have done a good deal of genealogical research to help inform family members of their heritage, have pointed out common phrases taken from the works of Scottish authors, and have mentioned a number of the inventions and breakthroughs listed in your post (mostly those from before my forebears left for the US).

So the goal isn't to have the family in kilts, though I do encourage wearing them in appropriate circumstances - especially in the case of my single brothers, but rather to get our minds "accented" as you and Robert Louis Stevenson so aptly put it.

Thanks for sharing your insight, MacSpadger, it is appreciated!

[Chas]

I suppose the difference is doing something or paying someone else to do something.

Regards

Chas

[48th Highlander]

1. Its more than a notion to assemble proper attire to go kilted. Even hiring a kilt goes beyond what most people are willing to spend on an event.

2. In reality, how many formal events do people attend anymore? Once every few years? I see people going to weddings in jeans and button down shirts. How many people own a tux anymore?

3. There are a lot more Indians in the world than Scots, and that society is pretty monolithic while much of the rest of the world is Multicultural. As a matter of fact if you have ever been anywhere Indian's have mass emigrated to, you will see they essentially overwhelm and change the local culture to look much like theirs. Deira in Dubai is a good example. It is more like Mumbai than an Arab Emirate. Much of the food in that country is more influenced by India than the native Arabic cuisine. Saudi's can't live without rice, yet they can't grow it. So its about numbers, and lack of outside influence. Certain mass emigrations of Scots to the new world are probably responsible for the preservation of Scottish National Dress to the scale we see today. Toronto in the 1800's was mass populated with home sick Scots. Such was the influence that Canada has more regional Army Highland Regiments than does Scotland.

4. Caucasian cultures have really amalgamated into a western culture where public displays of ones culture can be seen as silly or as peacockery. If you don't believe me, send your kid to a school event in Leiderhosen or a Kilt and see what happens. I laughed at one spoof on a Scottish promotional commercial where they talked about the unique national attire, and then show a guy in an Adidas track suit with his hat on backward. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFubsxHTApw

5. American pop culture is a culprit. It dominates the world media. I don't even like to claim it as American, but unfortunately it is. It rises out of a young multicultural country that really had no native traditions or customs.

I actually think it is quite amazing that a small place like Scotland has preserved its culture as well as it has. I am sure there are Scottish members here who see some of the going's on at XMARKS and find some of it reviling as some take their traditional national dress to extremes with utilikilts, and other extreme interpretations of dress.

[Mike_Oettle]

This past week I had a rather different take on this situation. A colleague of mine is Glasgow-born and -bred, and is extremely proud of being Scottish and of his knowledge of Scottish culture.
However, he has never worn a kilt in his life.
Nonetheless he found cause to cavil at the way I wore my kilt – he dislikes its rise, and tells me he has never seen a kilt worn that way in Scotland.
When I tried to tell him he had probably seen men (and boys) wearing jackets and waistcoats buttoned up, so covering the top end of the kilt, he refused to listen.
He searched the internet and came across a photograph of a Ren Faire re-enactor wearing a kilt fitted at the hips and a gillie shirt, holding a double-handed sword.
The feet and lower legs were unclear, but it looked as though he was wearing rawhide shoes and cadadh.
That, he said, was how the kilt ought to be worn!
What could I say?
Regards,
Mike

[Nick the DSM]

This past week I had a rather different take on this situation. A colleague of mine is Glasgow-born and -bred, and is extremely proud of being Scottish and of his knowledge of Scottish culture.
However, he has never worn a kilt in his life.
Nonetheless he found cause to cavil at the way I wore my kilt – he dislikes its rise, and tells me he has never seen a kilt worn that way in Scotland.
When I tried to tell him he had probably seen men (and boys) wearing jackets and waistcoats buttoned up, so covering the top end of the kilt, he refused to listen.
He searched the internet and came across a photograph of a Ren Faire re-enactor wearing a kilt fitted at the hips and a gillie shirt, holding a double-handed sword.
The feet and lower legs were unclear, but it looked as though he was wearing rawhide shoes and cadadh.
That, he said, was how the kilt ought to be worn!
What could I say?
Regards,
Mike

He's know best, right?