I sent my friend Seamus the George Will article below. He is a brother
Marine and combat vet of Vietnam ,
who loves Scotland and Ireland , is a
piper, into Celtic music and far more knowledgeable on Scottish and Irish
history than I am. He wrote a long response, below with great history lessons
on Scotland
I thought was worth sharing. ~Bob
Excerpt: Tucking into a dish of Scottish haggis is not a
task for the fainthearted. There are various haggis recipes, but basically it
is sheep’s pluck — the heart, lungs and liver — cooked together, then mixed
with suet and oatmeal and boiled in a sheep’s stomach, then served, sometimes
drenched with Scotch. People who pour whisky on oatmeal are not shrinking
violets. Remember this on Thursday when Scotland votes on independence from
the United Kingdom .
There are economic reasons for and (mostly) against Scotland
disassociating from the queen’s realm. This issue, however, touches chords of
memory more interesting than money.
Hi Bob.
Though I suspect Mr. Will (not a writer I often agree with)
may be somewhat sympathetic, and seems to be trying to be fairly objective
(unlike his usual essays), he, like most Americans and even many Britons is
obviously completely unaware of a great many facets of Scottish history and
their national character. I suspect that Mr. Will (as usual) started out with a
conclusion he wanted to make, but didn't bother doing the home-work, research,
or other tasks necessary to make a valid argument.
For example, he starts out with the common "Scotch and
haggis" gambit in an attempt to delineate Scotland , which is, and always has
been, a nation which is composed of far more and greater qualities and traits
than a few traditional folk-menu items. (This is rather akin to the equally
egregious "tartan, kilt and bagpipes" approach to defining Scotland .)
Mr. Will then goes on to quote Mr. Reynolds and state that Scotland is
"an ethnic nation" which he defines as “a community of shared
descent, rooted in language, ethnicity, and culture.” In fact, Scotland is
made of many ethnic, linguistic, and cultural strands woven in over the
centuries, and has a complex cultural and linguistic history.
In the 9th century, Scotland had almost half a dozen
different overlapping cultures speaking as many different languages, such
as Cumbric Brythonic in the South-West, Pictish in the North-East,
Irish (Gaelic) in the Hebrides and West coast, later followed by Vikings in
Orkney and Shetland, and in the Hebrides and West Highlands, who blended
with the Gaels and older inhabitants, some of whose language became incorporated
in what was becoming Scots Gaelic, and of course the Angles in the South-East,
especially from the time of Malcolm "Cean-mor" and his successors,
speaking the dialect of English which would eventually become the language that
has been called "the guid Scots tongue" (aka "Doric,"
"Broad Scots" or increasingly in recent years, "Lallans").
And let's not forget the Normans introduced by David I and
his Normanophile successors, or the Flemish introduced into Scotland, first by
David I and later migrations, including that authorized by James VI prior to
his becoming King of England.
There have of course been many others in more modern times,
but this historic over-view shows how wrong Mr. Will is about the Scots and
their supposedly homogeneous origins. While most of these cultures have
assimilated (as they did elsewhere, including in the US ), their marks were left on the
language and culture.
Likewise, the Highland
and Lowland cultures have historically differed greatly from one another,
leading to many a war and feud. So much for "ethnic unity."
As to Wallace, far from becoming an icon only in the late
19th century, as Mr. Will and / or Mr. Reynolds imply, Sir William Wallace
(like his contemporary, King Robert the Bruce) has been an iconic figure in
Scotland since his campaigns in 1297-98, followed by his brutal and horrendous
judicial murder by Edward I on the 23rd of August, 1305.
Wallace is referred to by Scottish poets and historians from
John Barbour (c.1320 – 13 March 1395) in his work "The Brus"
and Abbot Walter Bower (ca. 1385 – 24 December 1449), and especially by
the great Scottish "makar" Blind Harry (c. 1440 – 1492),
whose "The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir
William Wallace" (aka "The Wallace") set forth most
of what we now know about Wallace.
These histories, stories and references continue on all the
way up through Burns (himself a "cult figure" almost from his death
in the early 19th century), who certainly knew (and indeed used some of)
Blind Harry's lines in his own famous nationalist paean to Bruce and Wallace, "Scots
Wha' Ha'e" and on to Walter Scott and his successors. Therefore, 550
years of history refutes Mr. Will's contention that Wallace became a "cult
figure" only in the late 19th century.
As to the "continued vitality of their national
sentiments testifies to the ability of differences to resist homogenization by
the commercial and cultural forces of modernity" -- that is ludicrous.
While they have indeed resisted "homogenization" to some
respect, the Scots for all intents and purposes invented the modern
world -- as Arthur Herman has pointed out in his book on that topic. (Mind you,
Herman has a number of deficiencies too, but he is essentially right in that it
was the Scots who quite literally invented the modern world -- not only
with their technological inventions and improvements, but with their
philosophical and political contributions as well.
Examine the Founders and Framers of the American Republic
In Pennsylvania , Virginia , and most of the Carolinas ,
support for the revolution was "practically unanimous." Mecklenburg County , North Carolina ,
with its large Scotch-Irish population, was to make the first declaration for
independence from Britain
in the Mecklenburg Declaration of 1775.
The Scotch-Irish "Overmountain Men" of Virginia and North
Carolina formed a militia which won the Battle
of Kings Mountain in 1780, resulting in the British abandonment of the
southern campaign, which some historians believe marked "the turning
point of the American Revolution."
A British major general testified to the House of
Commons that "half the rebel Continental Army were from Ireland "
and one Hessian officer during the Revolution said, "Call this
war by whatever name you may, only call it not an American rebellion; it is
nothing more or less than a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian rebellion."
Alexander Hamilton was the son of a Scottish laird, and a
great many other Revolutionaries had Scots or Scotch-Irish antecedents, such as
the Reverend Dr. John Witherspoon, a native Scot who became
a patriot, signer of the Declaration, and first Moderator of the US
Presbyterian Church, as well as a principal educator of Madison and others who
became Revolutionaries (who, despite his own activity, thought that ministers
and religion should have no active part in government.)
Their philosophies and beliefs (many of which were molded by
Enlightenment and Age of Reason philosophers) had a huge effect on the course
of events that led to the American Revolution, and all the subsequent events
that sprang from it.
One third of our Presidents have been of Scots or
Scotch-Irish heritage either directly or indirectly. The more obvious
ones are those recognizable by their names, such as; Jackson, Polk, Buchanan,
Andrew Johnson, Grant, Arthur, Cleveland, Benjamin and
William Henry Harrison, and McKinley, while Theodore
Roosevelt's mother had Ulster Scots ancestors who emigrated
from County Antrim
And of course, many other notable Americans including; Neil
Armstrong and James Irwin, John C. Calhoun, Kit Carson, Davy
Crockett, Jefferson Davis, John Dunlap (Revolutionary
politician) Admiral David Farragut, Nathan Bedford Forrest, William
Gamble (Union general), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ulysses Simpson
Grant, Sam Houston Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, Naval
Aviator and Senator John McCain, George B. McClellan, John P.
McCown (Confederate general), Benjamin McCulloch (Confederate
general), George S. Patton, VP Adlai Stevenson I, Gov.
(IL) Adlai Stevenson II, Sen. Adlai Stevenson III, J.E.B.
Stuart, Charles Thomson (Revolutionary politician), and James H.
Webb (Marine, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve
Affairs, Secretary of the Navy, and U.S. Senator).
The Scots and Scotch-Irish have made innumerable
contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine,
commerce, and politics that have formed the modern Western world.
John Knox and the Church of Scotland broke the strangling power of first the Catholic, and later the Anglican Church, while the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution. Thousands of Scottish and Scotch-Irish soldiers and immigrants helped conquer and settled the American and Canadian frontiers, and later,Australia , New
Zealand , and the growing British
Empire .
Inventors like James Watt, philosophers like Adam Smith, financiers and industrialists like Mellon and Carnegie, writers including Burns, Scott, Stevenson, Doyle, and Barrie, and hundreds of other Scots have shaped our modern world.
John Knox and the Church of Scotland broke the strangling power of first the Catholic, and later the Anglican Church, while the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution. Thousands of Scottish and Scotch-Irish soldiers and immigrants helped conquer and settled the American and Canadian frontiers, and later,
Inventors like James Watt, philosophers like Adam Smith, financiers and industrialists like Mellon and Carnegie, writers including Burns, Scott, Stevenson, Doyle, and Barrie, and hundreds of other Scots have shaped our modern world.
Thomas Newcomen's bicycle, the macadamisation (not
to be confused with tarmac or tarmacadam) of roads, based on the
work of Telford and McAdam, Europe's first passenger steamboat,
Fairbairn's tubular steel and iron ship's hulls,
the telephone of Alexander Graham Bell, John
Logie Baird's invention of television, Alexander Fleming's discovery
of penicillin, and the discoveries
of electro-magnetics, radar, and insulin and many other
technologies, techniques, and instruments.
Richard Feynman once said, "the most significant
event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of
the laws of electrodynamics"
As Victorian historian John Anthony Froude wrote, “No people so few in number have scored so deep a mark in the world’s history as the Scots have done.” (Though I'd be inclined to add the Irish.)
As Victorian historian John Anthony Froude wrote, “No people so few in number have scored so deep a mark in the world’s history as the Scots have done.” (Though I'd be inclined to add the Irish.)
Our contemporary technology, capitalism, and democracy was
largely shaped or influenced by the Scots and Scotch-Irish. The names I've
included are only the tip of the Scots and Scotch-Irish iceberg. (If you want a MUCH bigger
and more complete listing, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_inventions_and_discoveries )
So I'm afraid I'd have to disagree with Mr. Will. Scotland is a LOT more than a little
back-water of haggis, whiskey, and Celtic Twilight, unable to function w/o its
"parent" state, England .
If anything, I'd say the shoe is on the other foot, and it is England who
will become the net loser.
That said, and as much as I've wanted to see an independent
Scotland (and N. Ireland joining the Republic), the tendency toward
Balkanization of countries and peoples in many parts of the world is worrisome,
as it seems a step backward from what eventually needs to happen -- i.e., an
effective world governing body, with a charter based on our Constitution and
Bill of Rights. Without such a body, there is little doubt humanity will soon
extinguish itself, either through war or other means.
OTOH, attempts at world organizations have so far proven
ineffective or even disastrous. (e.g., the UN has done little better than the League of Nations , and the EU has serious problems.)
Oh well! Not a lot to be done either way, I
fear.
Anyway, tnx. for the link, and hope you are continuing to
improve!
SF,
"Seamus"
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