Can I wear my wife's family too?

[davidlpope]

This is going a LONG way around the bend to say, I'll wear what I wear, sir...with my own reasons and most likely not give a fig what another might see as "proper".

My observation is that this type of sentiment is what most strongly identifies us as Americans. Any Scottish/Irish/Italian/German/etc. ancestry that we might tout is a far distant second when it comes to what actually informs our sensibilities.

I think, though, that there is a trend to "Americanize" the motivations and actions of Scots long-dead (Bruce, Wallace, Charles Edward Stuart) in order to assert that in some way "Scottish-Americans" hold the "true legacy" of those they descend from. "Wrong but Wromantic," as Messrs. Sellar and Yeatman would say...

I also think that most Americans tend to hold views very strongly, regardless of the level of analysis, or lack thereof, that went into forming them. I can only shake my head when recent transplants to the South (one from Hawaii, no less) start affixing confederate flag license plates to their automobiles. I think that indignation stemming from clan feuds falls into the same category. It's almost as if folks try to "legitimize themselves" by adopting the supposed "moral outrage" of the group they desperately want to be part of. Paradoxically, though, this is the very sort of sentiment that marks one as "out-group".