The Dividing Line
Despite being nestled in the South, most of my friends, most of them anyway, are hipsters, and with that comes a certain disdain for being American. I consider it an extension of self-loathing, but whatever. I understand that there's something just undoubtably cool and great and substantive about a country like, say Ireland, with thousands of years of tradition, whether practical or literary. Our country has, at best, 230 years of tradition as a country, mebbe 325 as a somewhat culturally unified geographic area.
But despite my liberal arts education, which, despite being at a small Christian institution did its bests to - and rightly so - detail the somewhat sordid and less than spotless history of our "bastard child of the enlightenment" country, I still love The United States and deep down, and I don't say this often (try ever), I really can't imagine there being a better, safer, more free place to live and work and raise a family (should I ever get around to that). Unless providence dictates otherwise, I'm gonna stay right here, in the south somewhere, and go to a small presbyterian church, listen to lots of bluegrass & johnny cash, drink sweet tea and toddy's on the front porch, and talk about how great it was back in the good old days. Whether I'm worth millions someday or pumping gas, I can't see wanting to do anything else, even moreso, I can't see why anyone wouldn't want their own American version, whether in the South or Maine or San Diego.
Well, there's this war on terror. Folks might quibble with the name, but if the e-mails from friends and articles on cnn.com are any indication, our country, and in a very real way whatever it is that makes up America is at war with another culture. I say that, of course, ready with a mountain of qualifications and explanations. Nothing in my experience, thus far, has made me see it as anything else.
Anyways, you need to read Ryan's most recent post, most of the quotes come from an article by Tom Bissel in The Believer, which is arguable is one of the top 3 magazines in American, and interestingly, another reason why I love America. But anyways...read Ryan's post. While I don't despite Bush like Mr. Bissel, I do have my concerns, but I'll still be voting for him in November.
Josiah Q. Roe | By Josiah Roe | 04:13 PM
Comments
It's probably worth noting that Bissell's writing places him among the hippest of the hipsters, and yet he has the maturity to recognize the existence of real cruelty in the world, and the need to save people from it. His empathy transcends political labels. My gut feeling is the hope for us with hipster tendencies is to read people with bigger souls than we...
Posted by: mesh at May 5, 2004 05:17 PM
Josiah, I really have come to appreciate American southern culture as well, and I really miss it. You know, I really do think that the south has the richest musical heritage out there right now. You might choke when you hear this, but I think that some of my affinity to the northeastern rock sound (Joel and Springsteen) is starting to slip from my bloodstream and I am finding that bluegrass and southern folk is lurking down there at the very depths of my soul. I really do miss the southern sound. Gillian Welch has kept me alive out here.
Posted by: Todd Willison at May 6, 2004 10:13 AM
I think that the very fact that America doesn't have thousands of years of unified history and culture is one of the things that makes America cool. Even with mass media and the annoying pop culture elements, there is still a great regional diversity of the sort that you won't find in some place that's been around for thousands of years. It still amazes me that my ancestors came over here during the colonial period and settled in what is now the Lancaster and Lebanon county area in Pennsylvania and even after 250 years, there are distinct cultural elements that you don't find elsewhere in the US. People talk about how tolerant Europe is, but the fact still remains that the reason that my family is in America is because America welcomed people from different religious traditions with open arms at the same time that those people were being driven out of Europe because if you weren't Calvinist, Catholic, or Lutheran, there wasn't a place for you in Europe. Despite all the talk of America's lack of ideological tolerance, for generations we were the example that the rest of the world looked to to show that it was possible for people of different religious traditions or nationalities to live together in relative harmony.
Posted by: kathryn at May 10, 2004 02:20 AM
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