Conditional Loyalty, Limited Monarchy, Maximum Liberty

Classic rhetoric has the 'three part list', eg Julius Caesar's "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered), or even in our era "Snap, Crackle & Pop". Or dare I say, post-Covid, "Build Back Better".

We remember threes. Brand names should be no more than four syllables. Advertising headlines should never have more than nine words. There are patterns in our culture.

This one – "Conditional Loyalty, Limited Monarchy, Maximum Liberty" – seems to me to be a decent summary of the Ulster-Scots ideological philosophical community experience, from the Biblical covenants right through the era of revolutions to modern democracy. In Scotland, Ulster and America.

Somebody needs to write a book.

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PS - in a similar vein, in November 2002 I came up with "Mined in Scotland, Forged in Ulster, Exported Worldwide" as a slogan for the Ulster-Scots Heritage Council. You can search this blog for previous references to it.

Recently a friend - unaware that it was one of mine - relayed to me an alternative theory for where it came from. For anyone looking in, I can assure you 100% it was me who came up with it! I remember some sniffy condescending journalist saying that it was a message about manufacturing, which was appropriate as Ulster-Scots was a manufactured identity. Welcome to the age of the wisecrack.

Actually, it was an attempt to improve on the older "Brewed in Scotland, bottled in Ulster, uncorked in America", which itself seems to have been a development from the 1906 "distilled in Scotland, decanted in Ireland, uncorked in America" which I have blogged about before, here.