Questions for the Scottish nationals:
Is the hereditary issues you have w/ the clan chiefs not identical to the monarchy?
Is the monarchy in their current position because of their protestant Stewart/Stuart bloodline?
Is that position not because they were the protestant decendents/head/chiefs of the Stewart/Stuarts?
Admittedly in ignorance, it seems akin to an American griping about their national/traditional government to include congressmen, governors, senators, but leaving the President out of it.
The clan system alive or dead, positive or negative, arose from specific needs. Because your neighbors were after your land, women, cattle etc., there was an accepted central head...the chief. And it worked. Sure it became bastardized. Everything negative mentioned is unquestionably true, BUT if you're going to look at the clearences, 1745, etc.; should you not look at the 12th, 13th, 14th centuries for example as well? It's very well documented how clansmen LOVED their chief back then for the most part. Bare minimum, he was accepted as a very necessary element. Sure that changed, but wasn't always so either.