Origins of American Bellicosity

[jmm99]

from JohnWolf...
The paper seems circular and very simplistic. I expect more from Rosen.

and

from Fuchs
I wouldn't dig deeper than at most two generations to find reasons for modern phenomenons.

You may search for a root cause and find it, but that root cause would have become irrelevant if in the meantime another factor had changed the outcome. The lack of such another factor is as important as the root cause.

All very logical.

Logic, real history and archaeology can also be applied to the homeland of the Gaels (Scotland and Ireland). The map (attached) from Fuchs' linked Wiki illustrates the geography from the Mesolithic until now. The red area has been a "common market" since that time - flows of peoples, technologies, commerce, etc. Not surprisingly, Southern Ireland has had more inputs from Wales and Cornwall - and from France and Spain. Northern Ireland has had its primary inputs from Scotland. And so, a bit more "Pictish" than the South - but read on.

When did it all begin and from whence the peoples of Ireland. I buy this, as to the Mesolithic:

The first humans in Ireland are thought to have crossed from Scotland, in wooden boats, to what is now county Antrim around 8000BC. It is also thought that the rising land and rising sea levels may have moved at a fluctuating pace, occasionally allowing the southern land bridge to re-emerge from the Irish Sea, as well as a northern one connecting Antrim to Scotland. These would have lasted only briefly, but would have allowed the migrations of both humans and animals. There is a cultural continuity between the mesolithic remains found in north Ireland and those in southern Scotland. Ireland was one of the last parts of western Europe to have been settled by humans, and the human presence here is perhaps only about 10,000 years old.

and as to the Neolithic:

It would be a mistake to think that the Mesolithic people of Ireland suddenly invented farming and became Neolithic. Rather, Ireland's Mesolithic hunters were displaced or assimilated by Neolithic settlers who gradually arrived in Ireland from Britain and brought the technology with them. The practice of farming had spread from the Middle East, through eastern and southern Europe to reach Britain around 4000BC. Again it seems that it arrived in Ireland via the Scotland-Antrim link. Evidence from Cashelkeelty, county Kerry, suggests that this happened between 3900BC and 3000BC [4 p28].

So, whatever you want to call the Gaels, the settlement of Ireland and its population came from Scotland - not the other way around.

Scotland and Ireland, like most nationalities, tribes and families, have their own mythology - the received narrative. That has nothing to do with logic, real history and archaeology. The Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) myth of Scota is a good example.

The myths and received narratives create a perception of reality, which as we see in current affairs, military and political, is often more powerful and devastating than what a totally logical person would reach from true reality.

And, that perception is what we have to deal with in the Small Wars context.

Now, if I can find one of Ken's Scotch-Irish girls:

... noted for their wanton ways - loud, rowdy and very tough girls, and the genre itself for the huge numbers of kids they had and their willingness ... to hop in bed with or marry outside the clan or sept ...

My son needs a mate.

Cheers

Mike