In Defense of the Cowboy

Ayn Rand Institute ^ | Feb. 26, 2003 | Andrew Bernstein

[B4Ranch]

I was wondering if he might be an Icelander with a frozen brain.

[mommadooo3]

What is a cowboy?

By Chireno (S.A.S.S. #6978) (1998)

The heyday of the American Cowboy lasted a mere generation, from the end of the Civil War until around the mid-1880's, when bad weather, poor range management and disasterous cattle-market prices forced an end to the old freewheeling ways. In that brief span the number of cowboys who rode the cattle-trails across the Great Plains totaled no more than 40,000 (of which approximately 9,000 were black).

He rode, he roped, he branded. He doctored. He nursed. He trailed cattle, and later, he fixed fence. (Building and fixing fences were the bane of his existence, partialy because he had to do them on foot.) On the northern plains, he fed - every winter morning and evening, no exceptions.

It is hard to generalize about the cowboy, they generated a riveting appeal in their own time and forever afterward. They were men of a particular time and place, living by a code compounded by hard-fisted frontier desperation and Victorian-era social values, performing body-punishing and hazardous jobs, and pitting themselves against a land of sweeping grandeur that offered prodigious drafts of misery.

For each man these harsh realities of range life manifested themselves in different ways. Depending on his personality, he smelled the air and grass (and the dust and alkali) and felt the motion of his mount and looked about and thanked God for letting him be where he was, and doing this job. On the other hand if he was of a sour disposition, he cussed his horse, cussed the country, cussed his employer and cussed God for sentencing him to a life full of everything he resented.

The cowboy has been called by more names than you can count, and cowboy was not the first. The Texan was first a vaquero (and that did not necessarily mean he was Hispanic). Later, after the Civil War, cowboy came into wide spread use. In the Great Basin, though, he was more likely to be a buckaroo, which implied somewhat different techniques and gear. He has also gone by cowpoke (or just poke), cowprod(der), cowpuncher (or just puncher) dabster hand, gunny sack (to sheep men), hand (cowhand or top hand), heel squatter, leather pounder, ranahan, (or ranny), saddle slicker, saddle stiff, saddle warmer, trail hand, waddy, wrangler, and of course you SOB.

A cowboy's main fault, from a modern point of view, is he has a limited vision of life. He's likely to have prejudices, and if you are a woman, you may not like most of them. He likes food, but is not interested in experimentation. Beer may be his choice over any California, or French wine.

A cowboy works prodigiously, and he will not knock off jut because the clock says it is quitting time. He can fix almost anything mechanical. He is decent, and then some. He has a strong sense of justice and will travel many miles to set things straight. Most important you can depend on him. If he is on your side, the cowboy will stick. He is a good man to have at your side.

Cowboy suggests a person who puts action ahead of thought. A speeder is said to be cowboying around, and Ronald Reagan was called the cowboy President. The word is often used as a verb too, as in "I been cowboying over on the Matagorda," or in "cowboying up," to prove yourself as a hand. It is also the basis of combinations like cowboy hat, cowboy boot, cowboy song, cowboy movie, cowboy action shooting and so on.