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and see that is where, as NCN would have said, we would have said nothing or changed the subject. and gone about our training. no harm, no foul.
don't know why this person stared daggers at a politely offered dissenting opinion although you never know what is in another person's heart or why they feel so vehement about it.
so we just let it go or excuse ourselves if it is close to being said.
There is definitely a Southern culture. Some of it great, some if it not so great. Lots of great music and food come from the South.
I do take issue with the idea that Southerners are somehow more religious that people in other states. My experience is that Southerners talk a lot about religion and they go to church. People in the Midwest (my experience is Chicago) go to church and just live what they believe without talking about it much. Due to the differing sects of Christians in the South vs the North, I do find the Northern Christians to be more charity minded (toward people in general, not just people who believe like them) and peace-loving. Having grown up in a very Catholic area, I was surprised at how so many of the views of people I met in the South would be considered downright selfish by the standards of the community I was from. The polite/PC Southerner stereotype is not really present here in Houston. I frequently hear people make divisive political comments at my various workplaces. In that regard, I think they are just like people from any other part of the country.
Worked all over the US and all areas have their specific customs, cultures, beliefs and idiosyncrasies.
I like the in-between states The "let live" states; they know who they are! None of this matter-of-fact pushy attitudes trying to cram every Lefty Liberal ideology or Neo-Conserviative BS down others throats. Truth is any movement away from the central standpoint, left or right, is a move towards someone or some group of people losing some rights. Why can't we have a political party like that?
Yes there is a Southern Culture and I enjoy some of it, but not all of it.Denying that it is separate and distinct is not a good thing. It's pretending that we are all the same, when in fact, we are not.
The South values hierarchy, history, tradition and conservatism. Many southerners who I know, absolutely define themselves differently that do northerners.Many of them call us Northerners "Yankees" where as I'd be hard pressed to find a northerner call southerners "Rebels". We just do not define ourselves by the Civil War.
I would really have no problem if the southern states succeeded from the nation. Their religiously infused right-wing politics is not helping our country.
I don't center my life around church, I am not fearful of immigrants, I think that Gay people are born that way and I do not think that outsiders are to be feared.
Also, it seems to be a very violent culture, from the popularity of guns, to the way that their children are disciplined with belts, paddles and switches. Rven inside public schools.
I love parts of southern culture especially the Southern Gothic novel. However, other parts do not sit well with me.
Yet, there is a Southern culture. To be more specific, there are Southern cultureS. I think one of the things that strike me about the South is how diverse it really is. I mean, look at a state such as Alabama.
You have the bayou country down on the Gulf that isn't much different in many ways than Louisiana.
Then you get to Mobile, which is definitely old money import/export kind of people.
Across Mobile Bay on its Eastern shore, is Fairhope, which has always had an interesting artistic sensibility from its late 19th-Century experiment with leasehold civic governance.
Then there's the Wiregrass with cattle country and peanut farming.
Then there's the heavily-agricultural Black Belt, where the sharecropping communities were most prevalent, and where poverty is the worst.
Then, moving northwards, at a dividing line between Birmingham and Montgomery, you suddenly go from a farm economy to a manufacturing economy. In this area, you had exclusively Jewish farming communities that slowly migrated to the cities, coupled with strong Italian, Greek, and Lebanese communities that move to the area to find factory jobs.
Then to the northwest, there are the mining communities such as Jasper, while to the northeast, there are the mountain communities.
In the north, along the Tennessee Valley, there's another totally different kind of vibe.
From an arts standpoint, you have tradition infused in music, literature, and visual arts, but there are competing strains of African, Scots-Irish, and Welsh influences. Cuisine, depending on where you go, is all over the map. There are probably three or four different schools of thought just on the cooking of barbecue.
The accents change, too. You can almost tell what part of the state someone is from simply by the way he or she talks. At the same time, there are wheels within wheels. There are divisions by class, ethnicity, religion, region, and football affiliation. The last instance was kind of a joke, but not as much of one as you might think.
The point of all this is to say that this is one state with 5,000,000 people. If there's not a monolithic culture in Alabama, there isn't one in the entire South. Southern Virginia, for example, is radically different from Arkansas, which is really different from the Charleston.
Now, on to how it has contributed. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were really influenced by Southern political thinking, people such as Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. The South pretty much punches above its weight in terms of literature and Southerners blazed impressive trails in terms of literary theory. And, aside from Rap, I really cannot think of a modern musical genre that doesn't owe a large part of its existence to the South, where rock, soul, blues, jazz, country, bluegrass, gospel, and a host of other genres all had their origin. Essentially, if you aren't listening to polka on your car radio, then the South has profoundly influenced your listening.
I was born in rural Tennessee in 1960. Growing up in that timeframe and location meant certan "cultural norms", if that's the correct terminology. In school, teachers were addressed as "ma'am" or "sir" and prayer was said each morning. Gun violence was unheard of, despite guns being widespread. Despite the racial tensions of the 1960's, we saw very little, if any, of it in our region. I'm not sure if that's a positive or a negative given the atmosphere of the time.
I think that folks of the same age and geographical background would relate similar experiences. To use a line from a movie: "The whole damn country was different" back then.
Location: On the "Left Coast", somewhere in "the Land of Fruits & Nuts"
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sheena12
The South values hierarchy, history, tradition and conservatism. Many southerners who I know, absolutely define themselves differently that do northerners.Many of them call us Northerners "Yankees" where as I'd be hard pressed to find a northerner call southerners "Rebels". We just do not define ourselves by the Civil War.
Yeah, those bitter feuds and rivalries do seem to be a particularly southern thang... and they sure do like to fight, from lingering Civil War resentments, to the Hatfields and McCoys, and even that most famous and most bitter of sports feuds, the infamous Auburn-Alabama Rivalry, which for many southerners, approaches religious proportions! And apparently their ancestors in Scottish clans predating the American Revolution, had a similar longstanding tradition of ancient feuds. Its a tradition going back even to the Romans, who eventually got sick of constantly skirmishing with 'em all the time, and finally erected Hadrian's Wall all along the English-Scots border!
Of course the other side of that, is that the south, and the ''sons of the south'' from other parts of the country, have often fought our wars for us too!
As much as I would love to bash the South...I can't because that would be hypocritical. As someone mentioned earlier on this thread this country is divided not by blue/red states, but by blue/red counties and sometimes even deeper. Southern Culture is heavily based on tradition, morals, values, and "good ole' slow cooking"...while I would say Northern Culture is based more on individualization, progressive change, industrialization, and wide acceptance of cultures, religion, and viewpoints. Unfortunately due to recent politics, media bashing, and economic downturn, the once guarded image of Southern culture has now been tarnished as a joke and does not accurately reflect the majority of Southerners' views. That being said: Move Out West! Where being innovative, creative, and expressive are just a way of life!
Worked all over the US and all areas have their specific customs, cultures, beliefs and idiosyncrasies.
I like the in-between states The "let live" states; they know who they are! None of this matter-of-fact pushy attitudes trying to cram every Lefty Liberal ideology or Neo-Conserviative BS down others throats. Truth is any movement away from the central standpoint, left or right, is a move towards someone or some group of people losing some rights. Why can't we have a political party like that?
Southern states don't know what "live and let live" means. The Southern ideal is to tell you what to believe, and if you disagree, then you better watch out. This notion of their supposed politeness and warmth is a bunch of crap. It is the most violent region of the US hands down. The South has the highest rate of homicide, regardless of race, than the rest of the entire nation.
There does seem to be a very high violent crime rate. Especially crimes against children.They defiantly discipline their kids differently. For a while we thought about moving to a southern state, but when we found out that they used wooden paddles in schools, there was no way that we were making that move.
Fundamentalist Christianity and mega-churches seem to be the norm there. While we were looking at homes there, every realtor seemed to want to know what religion we are and if we are Catholic.We aren't Catholic but it was still irritating.
Hunting is also huge. Hunting is big in the country in any state, but in the south there are suburban and urban hunters.
The violence towards children thing seems connected with marrying young, having more children out of wedlock because the fundamentalist religions don't approve of abortion and promote celibacy. Which is a joke with older teens. Fundamentalists also take the bible literally especially "spare the rod and spoil the child".
I can think of a couple of murders that happened in the past few years that seem southern specific - the murder of Zahara Baker by her wicked stepmother in Hickory NC. People in the area saw this woman abusing this girl in public. The child had one leg due to cancer and she would make her walk up hills while beating her. There was a picture taken of the little girl on someone's phone that shows a black eye. They home schooled her which should have raised red flags but child protective services did nothing.
In other regions, they would have been all over those people! And Caylee Anthony is another one. The parents were members of the First Baptist Church in Orlando, a huge conservative southern Baptist Church.
Then a few years a go some very religious woman drowned all of her children in a bath tub. Can't think of the name. It was in Texas.
Anyway I think there is a lot of hard religion, judgmental attitudes, a fascination with guns and a harsh attitude about child rearing that all seem peculiar to the south.
With that said, I really love shrimp and grits, sweet tea, greens and biscuits.
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