[FRIAM] The year ahead

[Steven A Smith]

Gary -
>  I remember a recent Facebook post by one of my cousins that said 
> something along the lines of "people have forgotten what an alpha male 
> is like, and Trump is going to show them."
I have been enjoying this kind of rhetoric among my Trumpian friends.  
It gives me the opportunity to exhibit my own often-hidden alpha male 
side.  I'm the guy who doesn't anger easily at all, but somehow manages 
to break up every bar-fight I have witnessed... other's anger and/or 
alpha-male behaviour brings mine out in (usually) fairly balanced and 
productive way.   I think I am not the only one.  I think we will see 
plenty of presumed "yellow bellied liberals" stepping up into the face 
of these "alpha males".   It will include females and plenty of all 
gender identifications who do not identify as alpha.   I recently saw a 
grey haired woman with a firm jaw and a steely gaze wearing a T-shirt 
that said "this pussy bites back!"   I've got her back (if she needs it).
> This is closely tied to the religious fundamentalism of the south, 
> which to my thinking, is damn close to that of Christian cults (I 
> don't have any personal experience, just going by what I've read about 
> figures like David Koresh and the Branch Dividians, and the Hollywood 
> prortrayal of them).
There was a pretty good story/study on the history of the southern 
(redneck/hillbilly/???) aesthetic/mind-set, I'll try to find the 
reference.  My parents were both born and raised in the hIlls of 
Kentucky.  They identified as escaped or reformed, or recovering 
hillbillies.   They moved west in 1949 for my father to become a 
professional forester... "picnic" in the woods every day he called the 
work.  They left behind most if not all of their Applachian legacy.  The 
premise of the story had to do with the marginalized Scots-Irish 
immigrants on the eastern seaboard who flooded through the Cumberland 
Gap and then spread south as the pressures of civilization squeezed 
these strong people who had the wicked-pride and quick tempers of their 
"Highlander" forefathers.  These were the people for whom Hadrian had to 
build a wall, not unlike the one in China to slow the Mongols.    The 
story included a study (I think using MRIs) showing that their subjects 
had an instant fight/flight response from stimuli that others did not... 
basically anything vaguely affronting their honor, triggered this.  I 
think the conclusion that this was a result of nurture, not nature, that 
there was something in the culture that propogated habituation to this 
response, not genetics.   I  think the recent book "Hillbilly Elegy 
<http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27161156-hillbilly-elegy>" also 
touches on these topics.

I grew up in western redneckia, another hillbilly culture really. And I 
mean that fondly.  Salt of the Earth, hard working people who got their 
hands dirty every day, left plenty of sweat, and sometimes tears and 
blood behind on their work product (cattle, ore, timber). They worked in 
what is now considered "extractive industries" (ranching, mining, 
logging). In their mind, they are the *source* of all good and necessary 
things.  If you eat food or grain or produce from a store, use toilet 
paper, copper wire, or 2x4s, you have to admit they are "onto" something 
there.  They had good reason to be proud, but in my estimation, for 
better or worse, the time for that work and the way of life required to 
be good at is now long past. THEY came from two types of stock.  
Hispanic descendents from the Rio Grande Valley who moved 100+ miles 
west to "greener pastures" in the 1850s.  Younger sons of new world 
"nobility" who would not inherit much if anything in a strongly 
paternal/patronage system. And then a flood of Confederate Soldiers 
after their defeat in the 1860s.   The former were pastoral, the latter 
ranged from being "wild cowboys" to literal outlaws (think Billy the 
Kid, Ketchum, Evans, Kinney, High Fives, etc) .   The tale of Elfego 
Baca is a good read.  So is Conagher (L'Amour).  Romanticizes both sides 
of that equation.   I grew up with both Bacas and McCarty's, descendents 
of these two proud if nuttier than a fruitcake "hillbilly families" 
there WAS cultural if not genetic inbreeding afoot.    This town 
(Village of Reserve, county of Catron, NM) voted to *require* every head 
of household to own a gun.  I'm sure my entire 1st grade class of 20 now 
own guns (with ammo) including the girls.  I don't know how well it was 
enforced... but you get the drift.

> Somewhere in this mix, a big dose of fear of the government 
> controlling our lives leads to fierce defense of the right to have 
> guns - despite the more "moderate" views in the NRA of needing guns 
> for hunting and self defense, the most strongly held view is that they 
> are necessary to take back the country if the government gets too 
> powerful. I must admit being torn on that issue myself. I don't buy 
> the whole "I'll give up my gun when they pry it from my cold dead 
> hands" mindset, but I'm also pretty suspicious of an overly strong 
> centralized government. You can take the boy out of the country...
This town (Village of Reserve, county of Catron, NM) voted to *require* 
every head of household to own a gun.

I also lived in the Mining and Smelter towns of Silver City, NM and 
Douglas AZ.  Different but not that much.

There is still a lot of country in this boy too, thank Gawdess I found 
my way out of most of the narrow thought patterns of those I grew up 
among, bless their hearts.

I own a gun, but no ammunition, otherwise I might use it.

I identify as Viking, but maybe I'm all Pict?

Don't piss me off Donald, I'm telling ya!  Not all "alpha-white-males" 
want anything to do with you, your bully style, and your privileged, 
xenophobic, misogynistic ways.  I attribute much of my "recovery" to a 
good general education in the Arts and Sciences... I think if I'd gone 
straight engineering or business or some "trade",  I could have missed 
the philosophy, anthropology, psychology, literature, and other bits I 
needed to "become more human".  If I'd gone straight into the workforce 
(in some extractive industry?) ditto.

I have very well trained (not educated?) friends who probably voted a 
straight ticket of Reagan/Bush/Bush/Trump right down the line, and are 
very proud of their "rational practicality" or somesuch.   We may yet 
have folks on the list here who feel this way.  I'm sorry if we squelch 
your voice...  I voted for Reagan once, that cured me, but it has been a 
long recovery beyond that.

We all take different paths.

Carry on,
  - Steve

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