A Modern Scottish View of Clans (and Gathering)

[macwilkin]

I'm very proud to be a Gordon, but I will not join the Clan Gordon society. Why should I? I go to the Highland Games and various Scottish events every year and hang out with my fellow clansmen, so why should I pay to get a card that says I'm a Gordon and tell me to go events that I already attend? I know I'm linked to the House of Gordon, what more needs to be done?

Have you researched what membership dues in the society are used for, and what benefits members received? Remember that many clan societies use dues to not only "keep the lights on" as it were, but to fund genealogical research databases, clan museums and donate funds to charitable causes and to historic preservation. For example, the House of Gordon USA donates funds to the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen (a very worthy cause) and also provides a scholarship fund to youth studying Scottish arts -- just think, if you had been a member, you might have qualified for it, and I don't know of any college students who would turn down a scholarship.

Our clan society, for example, helps sponsor a pipe band in Aberdeen, including their youth pipe band. I'm proud of the role we're playing (pun intended) in keeping piping alive in Scotland.

As far as the Chief, I am a product of Clearances emigrants, but I don't hold it against Lord Huntly. In fact, I think it would be kinda neat to meet the Chief.

Also, I love to Romanticize Scotland, but I don't pretend like that is what happened. Sure, it's fun to think about the Jacobite Rebellion as a fight between the English and the Scots, but I'd be a damn fool if I pretended like that was AT ALL true. Just like it's more entertaining and dramatic to think of my ancestors being driven from their ancestral homeland from the evil Whoevers during the Clearances, but I know that in reality it was Gordon who removed them for land. Does this mean I'll renounce my ties with the House of Gordon? No way! It's a part of my heritage, and while I'm not about to join the Society and fly to Scotland for the Gathering, I'll proudly wear the Gordon tartan, play Cock O' The North on my pipes, and have a great time at the Gordon tent at the Highland Games every year.

Don't forget, that tent you hang-out at at the games each year doesn't pay for itself. While some larger clan societies are able to reimburse their convenors for expenses, the smaller clans certainly can't. I would bet your local Gordon rep. has spent anywhere from $500-1000 on his display to attract other Gordons and to educate them about their heritage; kinda makes $25 in yearly dues pale in comparison, eh?

And do you help out at the tent, or do you just hang out? I bet they could use you -- heck, you could even pipe at the tent to attract folks -- perhaps you could trade a yearly membership out of the deal.

Regards,

Todd

[beloitpiper]

Don't forget, that tent you hang-out at at the games each year doesn't pay for itself. While some larger clan societies are able to reimburse their convenors for expenses, the smaller clans certainly can't. I would bet your local Gordon rep. has spent anywhere from $500-1000 on his display to attract other Gordons and to educate them about their heritage; kinda makes $25 in yearly dues pale in comparison, eh?

And do you help out at the tent, or do you just hang out? I bet they could use you -- heck, you could even pipe at the tent to attract folks -- perhaps you could trade a yearly membership out of the deal.

Regards,

Todd

Oh, I pipe and "work" at the tent, talking to people looking to find out more about the clan. I'm great friends with the guys that work the tent in Wisconsin, and it's true that they've invested a lot of money, but it is not the Society's money. They did it on their own out of the love of their clan, just like I do.

And I guess you're right about the scholarship and the museum (which I hope to visit someday), but for me it's just not something that appeals to me that much. With or without a society, I will always be a Gordon and so will the others that I know. We'll always gather at the games and sing "A Gordon For Me"!

[macwilkin]

Oh, I pipe and "work" at the tent, talking to people looking to find out more about the clan. I'm great friends with the guys that work the tent in Wisconsin, and it's true that they've invested a lot of money, but it is not the Society's money. They did it on their own out of the love of their clan, just like I do.

And I guess you're right about the scholarship and the museum (which I hope to visit someday), but for me it's just not something that appeals to me that much. With or without a society, I will always be a Gordon and so will the others that I know. We'll always gather at the games and sing "A Gordon For Me"!

Fair enough, and good on ya for giving your time and talents.

T.

[Phil]

And I guess you're right about the scholarship and the museum (which I hope to visit someday), but for me it's just not something that appeals to me that much. With or without a society, I will always be a Gordon and so will the others that I know. We'll always gather at the games and sing "A Gordon For Me"!

I think that sums up the fellowship that people feel membership of a clan can be, without all this silly flummery of feathers, chiefs, lairds plaids etc.. It surely is about belonging to a family.

[macwilkin]

I think that sums up the fellowship that people feel membership of a clan can be, without all this silly flummery of feathers, chiefs, lairds plaids etc.. It surely is about belonging to a family.

Again, in your opinion...what is silly flummery to you may not be to others.

As Barry Goldwater once said, "we can disagree without being disagreeable".

T.

[Bugbear]

I think that sums up the fellowship that people feel membership of a clan can be, without all this silly flummery of feathers, chiefs, lairds plaids etc.. It surely is about belonging to a family.

Perhaps, by "silly flummery," you really mean symbols of something you perceive to be oppressive... I don't know, but there seems to be that undertone in your posts. If so, then I can understand your feelings about this in comparison to similar things in my own life.

That being said, I can also understand what you are saying about the feelings of fellowship and belonging; though not in an exact way. Hopefully, I'm not way off..

[Phil]

Perhaps, by "silly flummery," you really mean symbols of something you perceive to be oppressive... I don't know, but there seems to be that undertone in your posts. If so, then I can understand your feelings about this in comparison to similar things in my own life.

That being said, I can also understand what you are saying about the feelings of fellowship and belonging; though not in an exact way. Hopefully, I'm not way off..

I think I share Burns' sentiments to a great degree such as this third verse from his poem "A man's a man" -

"Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that,
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His ribband, star, an' a' that,
The man o' independent mind,
He looks an' laughs at a' that."

and the last verse particularly

"Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a' that,
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that."

I hope this explains where I am coming from much better than I can.

[Bugbear]

I think I follow what you're getting at Phil.

[KFCarter]

I have no objection to people using what they see as a connection with a clan name as a means of establishing a closer relationship with Scotland, her history and customs. That is just great for both the individual and my country. I freely confess that I have chosen the tartan for two of my kilts (and for my avatar) from just such a supposed association and I am happy to wear those tartans. But I don't delude myself into thinking that I am preserving or paying homage to a valuable ancient social system when I do so.

I can agree with 99% percent of us, save the last sentence. I think the majority of people join clan societies to pay homage to their ancestors.

T.

I think there's an important distinction between homage to an "ancient social system" and homage to "their ancestors". There have been some reference in this thread to the irony of Americans romanticizing the trappings of an ancient feudal system. I think that misses the mark. Many Americans relate to clans as extended families, not as socio-political systems. In that context, respect for the patriarch (i.e. clan chief) is a natural step. As a member of a clan society, I have no problem tipping a metaphorical hat to the clan chief and the connection he represents to a shared (if very distant) family history. I am proud of that connection. But I'd never consider bending a knee to him. I reserve that for church (okay, sometimes, when necessary, the wife...). I don't feel I owe homage to a social system that ran off, kicked out and dispossessed my various ancestors. But I do owe, and gladly pay, homage to the people of my lineage, their native land and its customs.

In a country such as America where success is based principally on ability, reverence for inherited influence seems totally incomprehensible. I can only assume that there is a latent desire to look up to such people much in the way the late Princess Diana was revered as a fairy tale princess.

Perhaps Americans are comfortable putting so much stock in our ancestry because we are not captives of it. We are free, and have been so for a long time, to remake ourselves on a regular basis. The idea of America as a pure egalitarian meritocracy is as much a myth as any idealized picture of clan life, but it is true that we allow for the possibility that anyone can become anything if they have the energy, persistence and will to make it happen, and we celebrate those who succeed. While some of us may "revere" a Princess or a clan chief in a romantic way, I don't see us granting either any meaningful authority over our lives.

[Phil]

The idea of America as a pure egalitarian meritocracy is as much a myth as any idealized picture of clan life, but it is true that we allow for the possibility that anyone can become anything if they have the energy, persistence and will to make it happen, and we celebrate those who succeed. While some of us may "revere" a Princess or a clan chief in a romantic way, I don't see us granting either any meaningful authority over our lives.

Remember that while you may, possibly, become the President of your country through effort, persistence, possibly ability and no doubt shed-loads of cash, you cannot ever, in any circumstances, no matter how much you wish or try, become a clan chief because that depends solely upon an accident of birth. Something that none of us can overcome no matter how much we may wish or try for it. But what, precisely, does such an accident of birth confer upon an individual that makes him (I say him deliberately because primogeniture is another essential part of the deal here) such a suitable candidate for the job? Answers please on the back of a postage stamp - if you can actually think of any that is. I suppose that places you in a similar situation as me in that I cannot ever become the Head of State in my country for exactly the same reason. There are many obstacles placed in our path as we make our way through life but ones such as these that deny even the possibility are indefensible, unsupportable and should be swept away as your forefathers so sensibly decided all those years ago.