One of the major causes of the war, and among the chief motivating
factors behind the deep Southern commitment to the fight evidenced by
the widespread volunteerism of the so-called "Southern yeoman" who owned
no slaves and had no stake in slavery, was the smug presumption to
moral and even spiritual superiority of so many in the North,
abolitionists and New Enlganders in particular. The stench of
condescension and hypocrisy was particularly foul to Southerners of the
day, which is not surprising since so many of them were of "Scots Irish"
descent and within at most three generations of having escaped the
grinding poverty and horrific political oppression of a Great Britain
which reviled them. So the South as a whole tended to have a chip on its
shoulder about anything which smacked of the establishment, entitlement
or the upper class. In short, the North. You can't continually insult a
man - or a region - and pretend surprise when he wants to step outside
with you.
This is a casus belli which has been routinely overlooked by Northern commentators, many of whom today persist in the same offensive, contemptuous behavior which came so naturally to their forbears, particularly academics. As self-identified members of the elite and claimants to membership in the intelligentsia, they were representatives of that entitled class which led the North, and as such were simply incapable of recognizing their own egoism, prejudice and presumption. These representatives of the Northern elites were far more likely to understand Swahili than they were to grasp what it meant to live a Southerner's life, and to understand the factors which formed his character and personality.
As I noted, that same egotistical presumption and condescension is today routinely seen in the intellectual heirs of those elites who were so contemptuous of the South both prior to the North's military invasion and afterwards, when the South was crushed and humiliated for generations, unlike any other foe defeated by the United States. The most smug and condescending attitudes often come from academics, who rely on the same insulting behavior and presumptuous attitudes when speaking of today's South and its inhabitants. Often these academics retain the same smug pretensions of moral superiority as did their forbears. And, just as their forbears, they can exhibit a truly breathtaking hypocrisy and shocking degree of willful moral blindness, by praising as military geniuses and heroes men who intentionally made war on civilians, which included the same acts of barbarism, brutality and outright terrorism for which Nazi and Imperial Japanese generals were ignominiously hanged. Just think of the vanity necessary to accomplish such a neat intellectual trick.
Yes, such attitudes are still encountered today, when the same kind of moral egotists speak in terms of "lies" and "myths" on which Southerners "loudly" "insist". Because Southerners don't just have a different opinion - they're not even merely in error. No, they're perverse. Immoral. Evil. The familiar smug, scornful and patronizing words. And informed by the same narcissism and moral blindness which afflicted those who went before them.
This is a casus belli which has been routinely overlooked by Northern commentators, many of whom today persist in the same offensive, contemptuous behavior which came so naturally to their forbears, particularly academics. As self-identified members of the elite and claimants to membership in the intelligentsia, they were representatives of that entitled class which led the North, and as such were simply incapable of recognizing their own egoism, prejudice and presumption. These representatives of the Northern elites were far more likely to understand Swahili than they were to grasp what it meant to live a Southerner's life, and to understand the factors which formed his character and personality.
As I noted, that same egotistical presumption and condescension is today routinely seen in the intellectual heirs of those elites who were so contemptuous of the South both prior to the North's military invasion and afterwards, when the South was crushed and humiliated for generations, unlike any other foe defeated by the United States. The most smug and condescending attitudes often come from academics, who rely on the same insulting behavior and presumptuous attitudes when speaking of today's South and its inhabitants. Often these academics retain the same smug pretensions of moral superiority as did their forbears. And, just as their forbears, they can exhibit a truly breathtaking hypocrisy and shocking degree of willful moral blindness, by praising as military geniuses and heroes men who intentionally made war on civilians, which included the same acts of barbarism, brutality and outright terrorism for which Nazi and Imperial Japanese generals were ignominiously hanged. Just think of the vanity necessary to accomplish such a neat intellectual trick.
Yes, such attitudes are still encountered today, when the same kind of moral egotists speak in terms of "lies" and "myths" on which Southerners "loudly" "insist". Because Southerners don't just have a different opinion - they're not even merely in error. No, they're perverse. Immoral. Evil. The familiar smug, scornful and patronizing words. And informed by the same narcissism and moral blindness which afflicted those who went before them.
Your points show themselves quite plainly in border states especially. Like Missouri who's entire State guard joined the Southern cause yet as a whole very few people owned slaves and slavery here was anything but institutional in nature. It was the overbearing, elitist, destructive moves by the Northern sympathizers that tipped the scales. Only the Northeastern German immigrants went pro-Union and allowed the North to claim St. Louis and then capture the Jefferson City.
ReplyDeleteYet academics refuse to even really look at the facts and continue to spread myths int he matter.
allowed the North to claim St. Louis and then capture the Jefferson City.
DeleteYet academics refuse to even really look at the facts and continue to spread myths int he matter.
Well said.
The saying "the South shall rise again" has yet to be realized. However with the elite North holed up in large, vulnerable cities, this might yet come to pass. If they all burn, I will not weep for them.
ReplyDelete& most of them who come down South stay in gated communities. You can usually tell them by noticing their reaction/s as you walk pass them.
DeleteGreat read.
ReplyDeleteMiss Violet
I was impressed.
DeleteAs someone who was born and raised north of the Mason-Dixon line, I can say those "know it all" Yankees are idiots.
ReplyDeleteThey believe what teacher and the talking head idiots tell them.
The Yankee Problem In America, By Clyde Wilson
Deletehttp://www.namsouth.com/viewtopic.php?t=1476&highlight=yankee+problem
"By Yankee I do not mean everybody from north of the Potomac and Ohio......I am using the term historically to designate that peculiar ethnic group descended from New Englanders, who can be easily recognized by their arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, lack of congeniality, and penchant for ordering other people around. Puritans long ago abandoned anything that might be good in their religion but have never given up the notion that they are the chosen saints whose mission is to make America, and the world, into the perfection of their own image."
Back in the mid 70s I read an article written by one of these meely mouth SOBs slandering Richard Petty after the Michigan race . Anymore I'm kinda like Sweet Brown .... " I ain't got TIME fo dat ! " .
ReplyDelete