It Wasn’t “Gone with the Wind.” It Was Never There. 2
Will Bunch deconstructs John Kelly’s misguided and historically–what’s a stronger word than “false”? Oh, yeah, complete and utter bullshit–claim that the Civil War resulted from a “failure to compromise.”
Indeed, it resulted from a refusal–the South’s refusal–to compromise.
Here’s a bit from Bunch’s article (follow the link for the rest).
The Civil War was not the result of “a lack of an ability to compromise,” but because 11 American states were determined to fight — to the death, if necessary — to defend a way of life in which an oligarchy of plantation owners became wealthy by enslaving human beings, based upon the color of the skin.
Kelly’s statement reflects what I have pointed out before–that the North may have won the war, but the South won the peace, weaponizing racism and propagating propaganda about a “land of gracious living” peopled by “Southern gentlemen and Southern belles” that never existed except in Gone with the Wind and other pieces of preposterous puffery, while papering over the violence and brutality that created for those “Southern mansions.”
That propaganda has penetrated the nation’s soul and perverted white Americans’ view of themselves, of their virtues and faults, and of their fellow citizens and residents.
Seeing the effects is easy.
You just have to open your eyes.
November 2, 2017 at 2:38 am
Thanks for this article …willful ignorance is anything but BLISSful … just plain stupid and dangerous!
Just acknowledging this … “while papering over the violence and brutality that created for those “Southern mansions.” is too much for far too many Americans!
The hell of enslaving human beings wasn’t confined to the enslaved.
November 2, 2017 at 10:16 pm
Well said.
As I have mentioned here before, my ancestors wore the grey. One of them is in the Harper’s Ferry Wax Museum.
I think that one of the dynamics in play in “old Southern families” is the refusal to admit that their forbears did really bad things. That is an explanation, not an excuse.
Thanks for visiting. I do really appreciate it.