something about which few will care

i haven't updated for a while, so i figure i should.
we had our "scottish culture" class today and it was actually interesting (the last two have been a woman showing us gaelic tv programs she made about the isles. educational in that "public service" kind of way, kind of like the stuff i did last summer...). the lecturer was talking about how the creation of the idea of scottish clan tartan and the idea of the rugged scottish highlands was essentially a creation of the 19th century english monarchy. it was used to politically and economically castrate scotland by making it seem like an uninhabited, if romantic, landscape dotted with the occasional quaint, drunk, tartan clad highlander, forever placing the country under english dominance. in fact, at the time scotland was quickly industrializing and urbanizing (hence the scottish claim that every thing england does is because they're all jealous of scotland). so the man you see here:

hampiper
Originally uploaded by nlovejoy.

is no more than a creation of english (and the anglophilic walter scott's) fancy.

so next time you wear tartan (plaid as we call it in the states) remember that you're only supporting an image used to protect england's regional hegemony.

there's only a couple weeks left in the term. then i'm off for about a month. yes, a month.