Posted on 07/22/2002 12:30:48 PM PDT by Aurelius
I occasionally get some rather rude e-mail from those with a deep-rooted Yankee mentality in regard to my little web site. Usually the writer informs me, rather contemptuously that my web site is all wet, that it stinks, that the War of Northern Aggression was really fought to preserve slavery, that I am totally in error about Abraham Lincoln, who, in the writer's opinion, is really god, and on it goes. 'Those people' never offer historical argument to back up what they say [they can't] but they are quite accomplished at ridiculing others when they, themselves, don't have a clue about the historical accuracy of anything. No doubt many of them are cultural marxists and don't even realize it. But, then, no one has ever accused those with a Yankee mentality of being over-endowed with discernment. Let me say here, that when I refer to the Yankee mindset, I am not offering a blanket condemnation of all Northern folks, else I would also condemn myself. I know lots of good Northerners who would cringe at being thought of as Yankees, and I know some Southerners who, unfortunately, fit perfectly into the Yankee mold. What I am talking about has no connection whatever with where you were born.
I got a rather nice e-mail recently from a Southern-born Yankee type who crudely informed me that "Lincoln was right and J W. Booth, and R. E. Lee and Jeff Davis and the rest of the gang were murderers who all deserved to be hanged." You can really tell that this character did his homework - what historical insight! He then went on to inform me that he was a white man born in the South but was, "thankfully educated in California." Folks, I submit, that anyone today who is thankful for having been 'educated' in California the way this man seems to have been 'educated' is just not the brightest light in the harbor. He then informed me, in his infinite wisdom that I should 'get a life' beyond my web site and 'grow a brain.' He closed his tirade with the statement that Lincoln was the last of the good Republicans, and his parting salutation was 'Long live Bill Clinton.' Usually I don't bother replying to such sanctimonious drivel, but, in this man's case I made an exception. I e-mailed him back and told him that if people such as he didn't like my web site then I must be doing something right. I suppose I should have ended my reply to him with 'Have a nice day' but, for some unknown reason, I didn't bother to.
This individual is a perfect example of the Yankee mindset - smug, self-satisfied, egotistical, and totally ensconced within a sense of their own perfect rightness in all things and on all issues. Anyone daring to disagree with them has to be berated because 'those people' have got it all figured out - after all, their 'teachers' and 'college professors' dutifully informed them that the war was all about slavery and that Lincoln freed all the slaves, and the 'history' professor wouldn't lie - would he? Lincoln must be more astute than Jesus Christ because, after all, Lincoln came along more recently on the evolutionary scale didn't he?
I have had people that checked out my web site and disagreed with something they saw on it. Often they have contacted me and have been courteous enough to voice their opinions in a civil manner. Others have offered constructive criticism, which was all right, because I took it in the spirit in which it was given. I had a black man once that read one of my articles and took exception to it, stating that he was a Christian. I contacted him back, informing him that I was also a Christian and with Christian charity, I sought to correct the misconception that he had. Once he understood where I was coming from we were able to carry on a dialogue with no bad feeling on either side. Some folks will check out the site and come back with genuine questions about something. That's fine. I answer what I can historically [unlike the Yankees, I don't claim to have all the answers about everything] and I often try to pass these folks on to someone else that knows more than I do.
But there is a certain class of Yankees - often well 'educated' that are just so superior to the rest of us 'great unwashed' that they don't even feel the need to attempt courtesy. They howl about us 'rednecks' and what we write and tell us to 'get a life' yet the sum total of their 'life' seems to be wrapped up in demeaning those who dare to disagree with their vaunted opinions.
A while back, Professor Clyde Wilson wrote an excellent article in Southern Partisan magazine called The Yankee Problem in America. In it Professor Wilson took on such Yankee paragons or 'virtue' as Ted Kennedy, the man who never learned to drive over a bridge straight, and St. Hillary Clinton of 'Cattle Futures' fame. Wilson described such people as smug, self-righteous, above the rules the rest of us live by, and completely convinced that they are right in all things - right enough that they deserve the privilege of telling the rest of us how to live - all for 'our own good' of course [and just maybe for their profit.]
There is no place in the Yankee mindset for grace, courtesy, compassion, consideration of the feelings of others, or for any of those Scriptural virtues that have graced and improved our civilization in the past. The Yankee knows only complete self-righteousness and, in that self-righteousness he exhibits a certain perverse pleasure in seeking to trample on the feelings of those who dare to disagree with his elevated opinions. In most cases, the Yankee understanding of accurate history is about an inch deep, and therefore, he becomes little more than a 'useful idiot' that the cultural Marxist professor that 'educated' him can turn loose on the world for the total benefit of the New World Order.
Yes it does, and we the people are going to be speaking.
No, no reparations wanted or requested. No whining and not a victim. Just a simple apology would suffice.
I have yet to find any phrase in the Constitution indicating that it was permanent and unrevokable.
These things are in the eye of the beholder. The more confident or assertive anyone is about their case, the more likely it is that those who disagree or are uncertain will pick up on the smugness and self-satisfaction. Smugness, arrogance or self-satisfaction can't be identified permanently with one cause or another, but with some supporters of this or that cause or position. Convinced confederatists can be as smug or egotistical as their opponents or detracters.
To me, this litany -- "smug, self-satisfied, egotistical, and totally ensconced within a sense of their own perfect rightness in all things and on all issues" -- perfectly describes Clyde Wilson, or most of the contributors to lewrockwell.com, especially the idiot who writes the headings and subtitles for the articles. We all have vulnerabilities and the person who deliberately treads on them is bound to provoke our resistance. A true reading of John Winthrop or Jonathan Edwards would reveal more about the "Yankee" than Massachusetts's version of Edwards or Hollings or Talmadge or Illinois's gift to Arkansas and New York.
There doesn't seem to be much difference between Benson and those he attacks. Certainly Benson reveals himself to be as smug and as arrogant as anyone who criticized him when he writes:
There is no place in the Yankee mindset for grace, courtesy, compassion, consideration of the feelings of others, or for any of those Scriptural virtues that have graced and improved our civilization in the past. The Yankee knows only complete self-righteousness and, in that self-righteousness he exhibits a certain perverse pleasure in seeking to trample on the feelings of those who dare to disagree with his elevated opinions. In most cases, the Yankee understanding of accurate history is about an inch deep, and therefore, he becomes little more than a 'useful idiot' that the cultural Marxist professor that 'educated' him can turn loose on the world for the total benefit of the New World Order.
The chatter about the evil Yankee seems to come more out of Fidel Castro than anyone else. The identification of "those Scriptural virtues that have graced and improved our civilization in the past" with his own regional tradition seems to be the pettiest of sectional egotisms. North and South both have their crosses to bear. It's best to get beyond endless, stupid recriminations and devote ourselves to similar private and common public ventures. Maybe the true "scriptural virtue" consists in admitting that all sections or sides or individuals may fall into vices or rise above them.
Bite yore tongue, son!!!
As for revisionist history, I don't know if the South is all that much of a target anymore. It is the entire US, well any white man or business man and our government since the beginning of this country.
My daughter has just returned to college and being an older person, I am flabbergasted at the history course she is taking. (By the way, it is being taught by a foreigner.) All of the industrialist of this country were no better than slaveowners (they make no distinction between Northern and Southern folks, there). All white men are and have always been racists. The US Army has always been savage murderers and rapists in the furtherance of the US 'imperialist quest'. It is really sickening. I don't think there is anything in the book that gives an account of anything good this country or white men in this country have ever done.
I don't either. But it has an amendment process agreed to by all. The secessionists ignored that. Keeping their slaves was a lot more important to them than keeping their agreements.
Walt
My belly isn't blue. It's actually orange and white, and not that burnt orange Texas white either.
Walt
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