Bagpipe ban for tat shops

[Phil]

At long last Edinburgh council seem to be doing something to curtail the excesses of the "tartan tat" shops - http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/to...ops.6810970.jp - it will be interesting to see what effect it has.

[English Bloke]

About time too Phil. Spoils the place, or it did for me when I was there last. It's the sound quality that's most annoying. When blasted out into the street through a tiny, tinny speaker it's just very irritating. In the shop? Do what you like. In the street? No thanks, it's just noise pollution.

[Cowher]

I agree that it is rather annoying and makes the entire experience feel cheap. Yet I have to comment on the feedback left on that site.
I feel many Scots don't like wearing kilts and dont like bagpipes. Yet they are angered or a little irritated that their culture is being bastardized by non-Scots. It almost feels as if they feel their culture is already ruined due to non-Scots.

[Phil]

I feel many Scots don't like wearing kilts and dont like bagpipes. Yet they are angered or a little irritated that their culture is being bastardized by non-Scots. It almost feels as if they feel their culture is already ruined due to non-Scots.

I believe it is a little deeper than that. Without going on at great length, Scotland and its people have contributed immensely to the modern world. From the enlightenment, the ideas of Adam Smith and the innovations of the likes of Lister and Fleming with antisepsis and penicillin, not to mention the first kidney transplants paving the way for modern organ transplantation. I won't even begin to list the inventions from telephones and television to bicycles and tarmacadam roads made by Scots. But what comes to mind when a tourist visits Scotland? Yep. Kilts and bagpipes! And how is that cheap and shallow stereotype reinforced in the mind of the tourist? Yep again. Tourist tat shops blaring out a pastiche of Scottish music further cheapening an already skewed cultural image.

Scottish people are justly proud of their national dress and, by and large, wear it to celebrate important occasions when they can feel proud to do so. It is not something that identifies them, however, rather something that is an inseperable part of their identity. Scots, however, see themselves more as a modern, well-educated people, fully able to operate at the highest levels in modern society, which, of course, they do both in business and political life. For a small nation of 5 million or so people they do indeed punch well above their weight and have done for hundreds of years.

To then see something that Scots regard with a certain degree of reverence being cheapened and prostituted in the way it is by these vendors offends deeply. That such action as this is the only manifestation of the Scots' reaction says a great deal about the toleration of our society. I certainly cannot see other cultures regarding a similar debasement of their symbolic national identities quite so benevolently.

[WillieMacG]

But what comes to mind when a tourist visits Scotland? Yep. Kilts and bagpipes! And how is that cheap and shallow stereotype reinforced in the mind of the tourist? Yep again. Tourist tat shops blaring out a pastiche of Scottish music further cheapening an already skewed cultural image.

This sort of thing happens everywhere. In France it's guys in black and white striped shirts and berets. In England it's double-decked buses and red phone booths. Here in Texas, it's supposed to be all Longhorn cattle, tumbleweeds, six shooters and John Wayne hats. I live in East Texas. Here there are thick piney forests, magnolia trees and huge lakes more like the deep South than what "Texas" is supposed to look like. I once had an old friend in another state ask me "how far out of town" the forest went? I said, "All the way to the Atlantic Ocean, I think." LOL!

[Dale Seago]

Scottish people are justly proud of their national dress and, by and large, wear it to celebrate important occasions when they can feel proud to do so. It is not something that identifies them, however, rather something that is an inseperable part of their identity.

***

I think that's the best and most succinct statement of the contemporary Scots' attitude toward their kilts I have yet seen.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Without going on at great length, Scotland and its people have contributed immensely to the modern world. From the enlightenment, the ideas of Adam Smith and the innovations of the likes of Lister and Fleming with antisepsis and penicillin, not to mention the first kidney transplants paving the way for modern organ transplantation. I won't even begin to list the inventions from telephones and television to bicycles and tarmacadam roads made by Scots.

Don't forget James Clerk Maxwell, without whose ideas the modern world would be unimaginable.

[Phil]

Don't forget James Clerk Maxwell, without whose ideas the modern world would be unimaginable.

I know, and there is a recently erected statue of him at the St Andrew Square end of George Street. And he is not wearing a kilt, playing bagpipes or with a Scottie dog - only joking. But seriously, there is so much more to Scotland than these tired stereotypes.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I believe it is a little deeper than that. Without going on at great length, Scotland and its people have contributed immensely to the modern world. From the enlightenment, the ideas of Adam Smith and the innovations of the likes of Lister and Fleming with antisepsis and penicillin, not to mention the first kidney transplants paving the way for modern organ transplantation. I won't even begin to list the inventions from telephones and television to bicycles and tarmacadam roads made by Scots. But what comes to mind when a tourist visits Scotland? Yep. Kilts and bagpipes! And how is that cheap and shallow stereotype reinforced in the mind of the tourist? Yep again. Tourist tat shops blaring out a pastiche of Scottish music further cheapening an already skewed cultural image.

Scottish people are justly proud of their national dress and, by and large, wear it to celebrate important occasions when they can feel proud to do so. It is not something that identifies them, however, rather something that is an inseperable part of their identity. Scots, however, see themselves more as a modern, well-educated people, fully able to operate at the highest levels in modern society, which, of course, they do both in business and political life. For a small nation of 5 million or so people they do indeed punch well above their weight and have done for hundreds of years.

To then see something that Scots regard with a certain degree of reverence being cheapened and prostituted in the way it is by these vendors offends deeply. That such action as this is the only manifestation of the Scots' reaction says a great deal about the toleration of our society. I certainly cannot see other cultures regarding a similar debasement of their symbolic national identities quite so benevolently.

***

[Jock Scot]

I feel many Scots don't like wearing kilts and dont like bagpipes. Yet they are angered or a little irritated that their culture is being bastardized by non-Scots. It almost feels as if they feel their culture is already ruined due to non-Scots.

I think that you are quite right, some Scots do think just so.