American National Clothing?

[davedove]

Is that our tradition? To combine many different clothings of many different cultures into something new made from the old?

That's the nature of our country: to take the bits that we want from each tradition and combine them how we like.

[DWFII]

That's the nature of our country: to take the bits that we want from each tradition and combine them how we like.

I'd have to agree with that 100% and deplore it all the same.

It leaves us with no National Identity; no sense of pride or loyalty to our history or each other; no ability to recognize those things...both material and immaterial...that are worth cherishing and preserving long after they have run their course and lost their currency to "the next big thing."

Neither here nor there, neither one thing nor the other...ultimately unknowable and unreliable.

[thescot]

Todd, you've done it again.

My favorite American of any stripe, a man's man, a gentleman of the first order, and very thoughtful person. A statesman and not just a politician.

A truly great man in many ways, and his style was always impeccable. His attention to the uniforms of the Rough Riders is an example of his ways.

He even had extra pairs of glasses sewn into special pockets of his jacket to assure that he would not be renderd unable to see should he lose the pair on his face.

[Bugbear]

I'd have to agree with that 100% and deplore it all the same.

It leaves us with no National Identity; no sense of pride or loyalty to our history or each other; no ability to recognize those things...both material and immaterial...that are worth cherishing and preserving long after they have run their course and lost their currency to "the next big thing."

Neither here nor there, neither one thing nor the other...ultimately unknowable and unreliable.

Yet non-Americans can spot us a mile away...

Perhaps there is something in the core and essence of an American that is not clothing, not in handed down traditions from the days of old, and not afraid to change: The myth of the American.

[Bugbear]

Ah, I'm an idiot for posting that, but I'll leave it to be laughed over.

[Bigkahuna]

"Here she is, "Myth America". Sorry could not resist.

[Bigkahuna]

"Here she is, "Myth America". Sorry could not resist.

[Bigkahuna]

I'm sorry. Your sentiment is well taken and I think you are very accurate in your assessment of the American Mystique. My sense of humor becomes alittle warped after 4:30am.

[DWFII]

Yet non-Americans can spot us a mile away...

Perhaps there is something in the core and essence of an American that is not clothing, not in handed down traditions from the days of old, and not afraid to change: The myth of the American.

Perhaps it is a general "air" of disorientation.

If what we postulate is in any way true, and particularly if, and as, more and more of us succumb to that peculiar strain of solipsistic self-absorption that seems to afflict modern society, it would be pretty hard to blend in anywhere.

[Bugbear]

Like I said, DWFII,

Ah, I'm an idiot for posting that, but I'll leave it to be laughed over.