Geoff, I am not innocent- sorry- and, coming from SC, "yank" has other connotations, but I appreciate your point, which is entirely correct. The point I was trying to make is that we choose tartan and justify our choices in many ways. I personally believe some of those ways are silly (as exemplified in 'the name of your dog') and of course, some of them are indisputable, as in asking permission of a chief or joining a clan. But where does that lead the uninitiated and unaffiliated? Well, it leads them back to deciding which clan to ask to join!
Clans have meant different things at different times. I know many people feel strong ties to their clans- possibly as strong as the ties of warriors of old. But in many cases, those strongly linked clan members have relatives who think they are nuts. Because they spend so much energy on something that means nothing at all to the similarly- connected relatives.
This thread has been a good place to talk about affiliation, both inherited and voluntary. A couple of good examples have come up of the commercialism of what we might call Tartan Loyalty and also its romantic, heartfelt aspects. We are doomed to bounce back and forth, between heritage and modernity, between being exploited and following our hearts, between tradition and the freedom of the New World. And now and then, we are handed a good story, not necessarily true, but a good story. Synthesizing all of that is sometimes difficult- it is often easier to choose a side and ignore those who disagree. But I think the whole picture is valuable and useful.
Some take the high road and some take the low road. Who's in the gutter? MacLowlife
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