Joseph:
No, I am not judging or “suggesting” which way is more in the right or authentic. I was merely pointing out to Zalman that he was accusing mariner for feeling inauthentic, when it was clear to me that HE was saying that he was the authentic one – based on his logic that the litvish derech was the original one, while “chassidus” was the “breakaway derech”. It is not my place to judge. I have maintained since the beginning of this blog that if one follows his minhag and Rabbonim, he is in his own right.
And yes, it is certainly a credit to chassidim for maintaining their dress, and it is also a credit to litvaks for giving up their dress (the yiddish tzurah) and defer to the wisdom of their poskim. (If you think me crazy for paralleling the two, consider the case of the time when Rabbi yisroel Salanter paskened that no one may fast on yom kippur due to the plague. I’m sure it was diffivult to give up such an awesome mitzva, but they did it because the Rav paskened like that.)