Why do Scottish people and American people see history differently? If you don't think they
do, then I'm here to tell you that you're wrong! In this video, I'm going to suggest
why I think that is, but more importantly, I also want your opinion on the subject. I'm Bruce Fummey,
and normally I take you to Scotland's wonderful scenery and historic locations
to tell you about the people, places and events in Scottish history. If you're new to the channel, but
you like stories from Scotland history, then you can click the red subscribe button at the bottom
right. Now the folks who are already subscribed now expect me to say, "let me tell you a story",
because that's what I normally do. This video is a little bit different, although I do have a story.
This is Kenmore on the banks of Loch Tay, it's one of my favourite places in the world,
but there's also Kenmore in Washington State, USA. I assume people left here, crossed an ocean,
then crossed a continent to build a new way of life, all the way over the other side of America.
I suppose that's why almost 30% of the people who watch this channel are from the USA
more than 5% from Canada. Anyway, about a month ago in February 2021, I noticed
a comment under one of my videos. Now the video was called, 'The Death of Robert the Bruce',
it's one of my most popular videos, if you haven't seen it you should.
I'll leave a link at the end. A Scottish guy called Paul Maxwell commented, "I just came here to the
comments section to see how long it would take before an American declares that they're related
to Robert the Bruce" laffy face (😀) laffy face. Now some Americans might get a little bit upset at
that, in fact they did. A guy called Great Red Spot, I'll be honest, I don't think that's his real name,
I think he maybe just had some bad acne, or something like that, anyway Great Red Spot, and
I know it's a planetary reference, said "Hey Paul, I am related to Robert the Bruce, like so distantly
it's pssft". Now I have no idea what 'pssft' means, it might be a young person's acronym, you know what they're like!
99% of my ancestors are Scottish who came to America in the 1600s. Is there something
wrong with being an American who's related to Robert the Bruce? I got all the documentation.
What's your problem? And to think I wasn't even going to mention it in the comments, if not for
you. Now I was on Red Spot's side at first. Is it a bad thing being related to Robert the Bruce?
No. Is it wrong for folks in the U.S. to be proud of their Scottish roots? Of course not. If you're
watching Red Spot, philosophically I was with you until you said 99% your ancestors were Scottish
right back to the 1600s, I just lost faith. 99%, over 400 years! That's a level of inbreeding that
hasn't even been achieved in Fife and they work at it! I think that's why they have the Red Spots.
I don't think anyone in Scotland's got 99% Scottish ancestry. Think about how many ancestors
you'd have between now and 1600. I just don't think that Red Spot's done the maths,
I have. Assuming a generation reproduces every 25 years from two parents, to four grandparents
to eight great grand parents, you get the idea. That's 131,070 ancestors. Now leaving aside the
supernatural level of inbreeding to go 400 years without extending the gene pool, 99% of 131,070
doesn't give you a whole number of people, and okay one or two that may have lost a limb or two in the
French Indian Wars, but I'm just not convinced. Now let's not be harsh on Red Spot, what he was doing
was exaggerating and everyone does it. I've done it a million times myself!
It's just that 99% was way too unrealistic, and it distracted me from giving the fulsome support
that I wanted to, and it kind of reinforced Paul Maxwell's suggestion, that some Americans may make
grandiose, overblown claims. Actually I took the numbers a bit further. Assuming the same 25-year
time frame between generations, if you go back to 1314 when Robert the Bruce was in his pomp,
that's 28 generations and 536,870,910
ancestors, and I thought if 99% are Scottish, one of them's got to be Robert the Bruce,
and if there were that many Scots kicking about, no wonder we won the Battle of Bannockburn, eh?
That's what I thought. It's not what I said, partly because I knew all 536,870,910
ancestors wouldn't have been alive at the same time in 1314,
but more so because I could see a social media spat kicking off.
I spend so much of my time worrying about a rammy (fight) between pro and anti-independence Scots, I'll let a
stooshie (quarrel) about Scot's and American's differing view of history slip under the radar. Just one of the
many things invented by a Scotsman! The point is, that whilst Americans are rightly thinking, who
does that cheeky jumped up Jock think he is? I'm proud of my ancestry, Scots are probably thinking, aye,
claiming Robert the Bruce was your granddad's exactly the type of thing that Americans would do.
I'm here to calm those transatlantic waters. I'm going to tell you what I think, then I'm going to
ask you, both Scots and Americans to tell me what you think, without a stooshie, in the comment section
below. Now for the benefit of the non-Scots, a stooshie is an altercation that's less heated than a rammy.
The Sarajevo assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was a stooshie, World War One was a rammy.
The point is that I think Scots and Americans do see history differently. Now I haven't done
a scientific survey, and this video will be littered with gross generalisations, massive
oversimplifications, and outright speculation, 99% of which are true, but the comment sections underneath
my videos give lots of anecdotal evidence, you see Americans look at Scottish history and say what
did my ancestors do? Scots look at Scottish history and say, what did the English do to my ancestors?
Now obviously, this is an oversimplification. Some Americans do say what did the English do to my
ancestors, and Scots say, I'll tell you what the English did. I'm just saying. In general, Americans
are emboldened by our history, Scots are embittered. Now talking about Americans isn't quite correct.
It's not just Americans, to varying degrees it's people from North America, and it may be
that the bigger population makes it seem like United States' Americans
do it more, or it might be a genuine attitude difference, but I want you to tell me your thoughts
in the comment section. So my anecdotal observation is that Scots are way more concerned about what
happened to Scots as a people, Americans are more concerned about their particular ancestors.
Less emphatically, I think that Scots are more likely to associate themselves with downtrodden
ordinary people, Americans are more likely to associate themselves with a celebrity or a royal.
Now don't get me wrong, the desire for prestige is a pretty universal human quality.
I've never yet had somebody comment, aye my nine times great granny was one of the prostitutes who
serviced Jacobite troops on the road to Derby, and my 18 times great granddad, was the guy who
slept in and missed the Battle of Bannockburn. People don't tend to make those kind of claims.
To be honest, I think that Scots are less likely to even know who their 18 times great-granddad was
but Americans and Canadians will give a description about how their family crossed the
Atlantic, with names and dates and what they had in their suitcase, so, why is this? Here's what I think:
number one, there may be a simple explanation that Americans slash Canadians slash colonials, who are
interested in Scottish history, are by definition, a subset of the Venn diagram who are going to be
more interested in tracing their ancestry. They're not representative of Americans in general,
in fact maybe Americans are no more interested in their ancestors than Scots.
Hmm!
Two; most Scots look back to Highland clearance as a bitter loss, and an end of a culture. To Americans
looking back, that period can now be seen by survivors as a genesis, and I think that's why
Americans are really interested in Clan history, whereas Scots are more interested in medieval
struggles or enlightenment ingenuity, although there may be modern politics at play as well.
Three; America is a newer and more diverse country. Individuals search for a sense of
self and belonging in their ancestry, whose arrival in America was recent enough that they can trace
records. Scots just tend to accept that we've kind of always been here. Our ancestors were the ones
that never bothered to leave, hey Tom, what did your ancestors do during the building of the diaspora?
Och, they just sat in the hoose (house) and watched the telly (TV) eh, Hibs were playing Hearts in the Cup final, eh.
Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? Incidentally,
Hibernian FC (Hibs) and Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) are soccer teams that play in Edinburgh.
Four; I do think there's a deeper, cultural reason that a Scottish guy,
somewhat impolitely, mocked Americans claiming descent from our great historical figures
and it's that in Scotland, everybody knows from whom they come;
Jock Tamson (Thompson), even somebody like me whose dad's West African knows that his nth time great granddad
was Jock Tamson. Now for the non-Scots, we have an expression that "We're all Jock Tamson's bairns",
that's to say, don't get above yourself, because you're no better than anyone else.
We all have the same common ancestor. He's not Robert the Bruce, he's not King James the Fourth, he's
not the second cousin of Bonnie Prince Charlie twice removed, he's just plain old John Thompson (Jock Tamson).
Don't mistake that for John Thomas, he's a dick, and he's English. Five;
take points three and four together, and America is a country built on individualism and go-getters
going and getting, and we've got this because my grandpappy built the thrust and vibrancy of
a nation, whereas his brother stayed home in Fife and worked doon (down) the pit (coal mine) eh. His brother remained in
East Central Scotland and worked in the coal mines, but they're both Jock Tamson's bairns.
So two culturally different descendants of Jock Tamson, both fiercely proud of their Scottish
heritage, clashed in my comment section. To me as Scottish, as Scottish African as you'll get
it's a genuine joy and privilege to take you to our beautiful places, to tell Scots
of the home country, or the diaspora, stories about our history. In a moment I'm going to put up a link
to that video about 'The Death of Robert the Bruce' that started this controversy in the
first place, but in return I've got a task for you, whether you agree or disagree with me on
anything that I've said, please give your thoughts in the comment section below. More than any other,
I'm genuinely interested to know if you think Scots are more communal than individual,
are Americans more interested in ancestry, do we pay too little attention to our history, do
you have your own theory, and hey, don't upset each other. Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.