Not to knock your fine state but.... (Jackson, Gulfport: how much, homes)
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..........Because it has the highest percentage of people who are incapable of doing much of anything (anything considered 'good', that is...).
Intelligence, and the tendencies toward Foresight, Altruism, and Impulse Control, are all highly heritable traits. Unfortunately, Mississippi has a huge number of people whose heritable traits, in aggregate, have the effect of increasing things considered 'negative', and decreasing things considered 'positive'..........
Ok. Let's agree that what you say is true.
The question I would like to see addressed is, How did it get that way?
How is it that Mississippi became the gathering place for great numbers of people who are simply inadequate. (I know you did not use that word, and I'm not saying you did; it's my word, which I will use, unless you have objections, to summarize your observations.) And why Mississippi instead of some other place?
And if Mississippi is the great gathering place for inadequate masses, is there some other place that serves as a magnet for superior people?
Mississippi never grew. The state stayed somewhat stagnant after the Civil War, right? It's economy used to be much stronger when slaves and cotton ruled the state.
Growth brings attention, money, and normally a good economy. Stagnation is what I think MS suffers from.
The question I would like to see addressed is, How did it get that way?
How is it that Mississippi became the gathering place for great numbers of people who are simply inadequate. (I know you did not use that word, and I'm not saying you did; it's my word, which I will use, unless you have objections, to summarize your observations.) And why Mississippi instead of some other place?
And if Mississippi is the great gathering place for inadequate masses, is there some other place that serves as a magnet for superior people?
The ancestors of those you have aptly described as 'inadequate' descend from people who were brought there to work the fields. Off the bat, I can name three continents, an island in the Mediterranean, and an island in the North Atlantic, whence they came. It was always the hope of the Plantation Owning Elites (much like the elites of today) to find a race just smart enough to follow orders, but stupid enough to be perennially malleable and exploitable. Not all turned out to be 'inadequate'. But the superior specimens tended to move to better places...leaving the truly 'inadequate' behind in Mississippi, to stagnate and proliferate.
Moving away to better places has been the pattern for Mississippi's best & brightest, since roughly the time of the Civil War. The horrors of Reconstruction sent many of Mississippi's best people to Texas and Brazil. And in the solid century of poverty that followed the war, what few Mississippians could finance a move did move... Arizona... California...
Even before the war, the horrendous heat and humidity....with not so much as an Electric Fan, to offer relief... caused many to move away. Mostly, those were people who had fine educations from Eastern universities.
Today, the preponderance of 'inadequate' people (and the huge number of otherwise 'adequate' people who have been stunted/emotionally-damaged/rendered bitter-&-toxic, by having had to interact with the 'inadequate'), is the primary reason why Mississippi's Best & Brightest pack up and leave.
Just the other day, a friend who's still there put it: "The worst part of living in Mississippi, is...your whole life... being condescended to by idiots, who think you're talking crazy, because you're talking about something they never heard of."
Someone else said, "They think you're talkin' gibberish, 'cause you're talkin' about things they don't even know are things." And lest you think my friends are running around trying to debate The Origin of Matter, Polyfidelity in the Bloomsbury Group as manifested in the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, or Thread Stratification in the Space-Time Continuum....NO. Simply using terms like Enzyme Detergents and Rubber Cement can get you considered to be "out there", "over our heads", and "liberal"....and heaven forbid you should slip and say 'evolved'.
As to places which are magnets for Superior People... well... Long Island, Manhattan, Palm Beach, The Pacific Coast, University Towns in the Mountains, The State of Connecticut, Upstate New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Vancouver Island.... all those places were magnets. Minnesota was once wall-to-wall 'superior': it's founding stock having been the best and brightest of Scandinavia, driven from their homeland by an oppressive alien elite. But all bets are now OFF. The whole dang country is falling apart, and even Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, Greenwich, and The Hamptons are surrounded by scaries. Connecticut is filling up with scaries. The county in California which has the best climate in the world (as my Decorator correctly predicted by studying charts of cold-water ocean current upwellings...it never, ever, gets hot, there) Well, that county is one big Pot-growing operation, now, and unfit for Human habitation. Down the coast, Malibu now has the world's highest concentration of Drug Rehab facilities. Well... I guess there's still Rancho Santa Fe and Mercer Island....for now.
(Oh, and jhadorn, I agree with your feelings regarding Cigarette Butts. First time we flew from Jackson to Seattle, our tiny daughter kept glancing out the car window and finally asked why people there didn't Mulch with Cigarettes, like they do back home. Seattleites must surely be backward. Apparently, at that point in her development, she greatly admired I55'S roadside edging of pretty white Ciggy-butts, interspersed with blossoming Stinkweed. Our sons were similarly impressed with the glittery crushed glass in airport runway Tarmac. All in one's viewpoint, I suppose.
What really leaves me speechless is seeing someone who feels that time spent waiting for someone in a parking lot is the ideal opportunity to empty the car's ashtrays onto the pavement. Good thing I'm speechless...'cause if I told some of those people what I thought of their butt-dumping, I'd probably be a Murder Victim, by now.)
One of my older cousins married a girl from Mississippi (who did leave the state for California decades ago). She's originally from Tupelo and is one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life. I was only six years old when they got married and she thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread - always kissing and petting on me. Heck, she even knew Elvis's family! How cool is that? When my aunt was dying from cancer she did everything she could to make her comfortable and keep her at home.
If Mississippians in general are anything like my cousin Ruby I'll never have a bad word to say about their state. She's one of the nicest people I've ever known.
Mississippi never grew. The state stayed somewhat stagnant after the Civil War, right? It's economy used to be much stronger when slaves and cotton ruled the state.
Growth brings attention, money, and normally a good economy. Stagnation is what I think MS suffers from.
That's right. Mississippi never recovered from the Civil War. When The War broke out Mississippi was considered the crown jewel of The Confederacy.
But Grandview Gloria has a little different slant on us Mississippians:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grandview Gloria
The ancestors of those you have aptly described as 'inadequate' descend from people who were brought there to work the fields. Off the bat, I can name three continents, an island in the Mediterranean, and an island in the North Atlantic, whence they came. It was always the hope of the Plantation Owning Elites (much like the elites of today) to find a race just smart enough to follow orders, but stupid enough to be perennially malleable and exploitable. Not all turned out to be 'inadequate'. But the superior specimens tended to move to better places...leaving the truly 'inadequate' behind in Mississippi, to stagnate and proliferate.
Moving away to better places has been the pattern for Mississippi's best & brightest, since roughly the time of the Civil War. The horrors of Reconstruction sent many of Mississippi's best people to Texas and Brazil. And in the solid century of poverty that followed the war, what few Mississippians could finance a move did move... Arizona... California...
Even before the war, the horrendous heat and humidity....with not so much as an Electric Fan, to offer relief... caused many to move away. Mostly, those were people who had fine educations from Eastern universities.
Today, the preponderance of 'inadequate' people (and the huge number of otherwise 'adequate' people who have been stunted/emotionally-damaged/rendered bitter-&-toxic, by having had to interact with the 'inadequate'), is the primary reason why Mississippi's Best & Brightest pack up and leave.
Dunno about Grandview's take on finding people who could just barely make it and bringing them into Mississippi, but in the end Grandview seems to take the same route as Annie in that people leave because of lack of opportunity. The best & brightest pack up and go elsewhere (I did) and leave all the rest behind to stagnate.
Dr. Jerod Diamond, in his book, Guns Germs and Steel takes on the theory that some people are just inherently more competent than others and does a pretty good job of blowing holes in that theory. His treatise deals with the assumptions of superiority by the Europeans with respect to the indigenous American people, but it could be applied to just about any locale.
I've been around a bit more than most folks - 49 states and 18 foreign countries - and I've seen several cultures that I really would rather not see ever again. But people? That's a different thing, to me. If you can get close enough to someone to separate him from his culture, then sometimes you end up with a whole different colored cat.
I have to agree with most of the posters here. I have been here 6 months and losing my engineering job here. I am sad but not unhappy to leave this god forsaken place.
This state is the worst I have seen for lack of education, litter/trash, morbid obesity and with a total sense of entitlements by the youth. They don't seem to care who they bother any time of day or night, whether it is the junk in the yard or the parties all night. Most housing developments here are trashy, overpriced and never finished by the developer, and nobody cares.
My best advice is to stay away from the northern part of this state, nothing I have seen here impresses me enough to want to stay in this hillbilly trash heap.
WOW!! You did not give Mississippi a chance. Let me tell you a story. My folks are from PA. After my folks got to married, they ended up in GA. Well, the boss told my dad that he could move him CLOSER to home. He ended up in Mississippi. He has been a Design Engineer for over 47 yrs. at the same company. So, please don't knock MS when you haven't even given it a chance.
Lol. Funny stuff. I find it ironic that the POOREST state in the union is also the most giving ( per capita ) when giving is called upon. You would think the other state's citizens, who supposedly have more money, would give more. I wonder why that is, selfish and self centered maybe?
And Honestly, when driving from Ark, down through south Ms and on into Ala and Georgia, you can't tell where one state ends and the other ones begin. I saw nothing in Georgia that impressed me. Yes it has Atlanta, big whoop. been there done that. Give me Orlando, Florida over it anyday.
Lol. Funny stuff. I find it ironic that the POOREST state in the union is also the most giving ( per capita ) when giving is called upon. You would think the other state's citizens, who supposedly have more money, would give more. I wonder why that is, selfish and self centered maybe?
And Honestly, when driving from Ark, down through south Ms and on into Ala and Georgia, you can't tell where one state ends and the other ones begin. I saw nothing in Georgia that impressed me. Yes it has Atlanta, big whoop. been there done that. Give me Orlando, Florida over it anyday.
Perhaps you should detour from your route. Driving though doesn't give you the slightest clue.
That farm boy you see at the gas station did more work before breakfast than you do all week at the gym.
The red dirt -- it's called clay. Red clay. If you like the color don't wash your car for a couple weeks -- it'll be permanent. If you like the taste of it -- visit in July when the Neshoba County Fair is going on.
We all started hunting and fishing when we were seven years old. Yeah, we saw Bambi. We got over it. It's a family thing here - we bond over it.
If that cell phone rings while a bunch of mallards are making their final approach, someone will shoot it out of your hand. If you are my friend Sara's husband, he might drown you --and in Tunica County, he will get away with it.
So you have an eighty thousand-dollar car. We're real impressed. We have a quarter of a million-dollar combine that we only use two weeks a year.
We eat dinner together with our families. We pray before we eat (yeah, even breakfast). We go to church on Wednesdays and Sundays and we go to high school football games on Friday nights. We still address our seniors with "yes, sir" and "yes, ma'am," and we sometimes still take Sunday drives around town to see friends and neighbors.
They are pigs. That's what they smell like. Don't like it? I-55 goes two ways - I-20 goes the other two. Pick one.
The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season or dove season. Both are holidays. You can get pancakes, cane syrup, and sausage before daylight at the church on either day.
So every person in every pickup waves? Yeah, it's called being friendly. Understand the concept?
That Highway Patrol Officer that just pulled you over for driving like an idiot -- his name is "Sir," no matter how young he is. And the cops pull you over, because you are probably driving like an idiot
Men open doors, pull out chairs, and stand up when a woman enters or leaves the room. They also take that damn hat off their head for prayer and the National Anthem, and you should do the same.
And finally, we have three religions down south....Baptist, Presbyterian, and Football. yes we LOVE our "mediocre" teams, why wouldnt we? It is called school spirit and pride -- maybe you should try it out.
I don't really care how YOu do it in your town, If it is so great there, then STAY THERE! Just don't come down here and put down our values.
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