Muck

Samuel Johnson's A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND is my source for the story of Muck. In 1773 Johnson and James Boswell toured northern Scotland, investigating the habits of the Highland Scots. One thing Johnson discovered was that local leaders of the Scottish clans were often named for the particular islands or areas they ruled. If you were the chief ruler of Mull, for example, you would be known as Mull. That was fine with the exception of the leader of Muck. He did not care for his place name and made an attempt to change it to Monk, but that failed to catch on. Finally a compromise was struck, and he became know as Isle of Muck, which some think a small improvement.

This problem came to mind the past few weeks as I participated in several discussions of the meanings of the terms liberal, hippie, progressive and radical. A variety of people could not agree on what these words signified or what to call themselves.

My own view solidified in 1969. In those days a liberal was a Democrat who supported the Vietnam War. A radical was Marxist or socialist or anarchist or pacifist. A progressive was a wider term that included radicals and others who opposed the war. A hippie was a lightweight dude who dropped acid and listened to Pink Floyd. If you called a serious leftist a hippie, he or she would be deeply hurt.

That history is now forgotten. I run into people who insist that a liberal is to the left of a progressive and that both of them are hippies. Like Isle of Muck I remain unsatisfied--I'd rather be a radical.