Steve:
Also more insights, thanks. I consider the 11 Nations as a model. With
all models there
are abstractions in order to make it manageable to gain insights of the
domain. Mr. Woodard's
model is very rich as models go - certainly more so than the binary
scales you point out have
become trite.
My personal 'model" for models is a rough diamond in the process of
being polished. Each model
is a facet - rough or partially polished - of the diamond and provides a
point-of-view/insight into
the knowledge domain represented by the diamond. Multiple models are
appropriate with each
providing a set of abstractions.
I agree there are multiple ways to abstract a domain into a model. We
each have personal experiences
with portion(s) of the model and thus have opinions on how that portion
should be restructured.
But we also have to consider our perspective is limited to our personal
experiences. If the author applied
an "abstracting process" consistently and as objectively as possible,
then we should consider the
efficacy of the model as a whole.
I also did not expect the upper Midwest to be Yankeedom. I would have
thought it was thoroughly
Midlands. In Minnesota our cultural history is predominantly either
Scandinavian or German. We
are very community oriented - with a local public school in the midst of
and surrounded by
residential homes. Which I understand is a Yankeedom characteristic of
my Puritan ancestors.
(I do not condone the Puritan "violence" they committed against other
non-Puritan faiths) So I
look at Mr. Woodard's argument to assess why he considers my region
Yankeedom-based and not
an entirely separate "nation" of Scandinavians.
MSP - airport designation of Minneapolis-St Paul.
My attraction to the model is for its historical, layered, montage-like
perspective. Multiple layers
of tissue-paper provide a perceived color or shape that was not
anticipated or designed by any of the
underlying layers. My paternal line came from New England via Erie PA
and Chicago IL. My maternal
line is mostly German and Welsh (with a rumored Loyalist fighting for
the Brits). They came through
Kentucky, Indiana, and finally to Chicago. I like the 11 Nations model
for its historical perspective
on how our country came to be in its current form.
My part of this discussion is based on the book/model as a whole. I
have not focused much on
the specific articles using the model to critique the Tea Party and
gun-violence.
Thanks,
StephT
On 11/9/2013 10:37 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
StephenT -
I would like to hear your critique of the 11 Nations framework. I
recently read the book
and found it fascinating. The book is well researched and documented
- though the reading
style of the book is in the "popular-style" as opposed to an academic
textbook-style.
Thank you for asking. I appreciate that you have read his book.
No simple binary subdivision of this country (red/blue, north/south,
urban/rural, etc) is likely to be more than of limited use in
understanding "who we are" and in my opinion, of getting off the
high-centered position we've been in for a (very?) long time.
As for my quibbles:
I'd want to split TX (and perhaps the OK/KS parts of Appalachia) and
give them to a separate Texas itself... despite Daniel Boone and the
Alamo and all that. They are specifically bellicose enough to demand
their own identity and sadly, that alone might be enough to grant it
to them. I believe their affinities to the West and the South are
different than the rest of Appalachia.
I was surprised to see so much of the upper Midwest declared part of
Yankeedom. I don't have a lot of direct experience, so my opinions
here are very thin. I'd be inclined to coin a "Rustbelt Nation"
running from PA across OH, capturing Chicago and the WI/MI industrial
centers.
I think his distinction between the Far West and El Norte are
overstated but that is probably my own myopia, having spent my life in
those regions.
More importantly, I think he mischaracterizes the West's "dependence
on the Federal Government". The railroad and the post-civil war
strengthening of the Federal Government *did* lead the bulk of the
resources/land in the west to be owned by the US government and made
available to big industry at a discount to exploit.
The *people* of the west, however, were already operating small
scale, subsistence "extractive" industry... they were ranchers,
farmers, prospectors, hunters/trappers. Big money/industry co-opted
not only their labor but their hearts and minds to some extent. It
was still happening in MY youth (60's, 70's and beyond) with big
money/industry offering good/quick money in return for support by the
locals to do more and more invasive things in their homelands. They
pitted the locals against "the Feds", all the while surely buying "the
Feds" off back in DC. Gun culture in the west derives from a very real
recent (1-2 generations) utility to most of it.
I think of the book as a modern day version of the layered invasions
of the British Isles over
the last 1500 years. The original Celts then the usual-suspects of
Angles, Saxons, Vikings,
Normans - and in the recent 50+ years - American Pop Culture. I say
modern-day as the
11 Nations formed in the last 400 years rather than the 1500 of the
British Isles invasions.
I think something similar can be found everywhere. For example when
you think of the Byzantine then Roman colonizations, then how the
various Mongols/Huns/Vandals/Goths etc. swept through Europe and even
Northern Africa, or the many peoples and influences in the Indian
Subcontinent, it is staggering.
I think we all see elements of his main thesis in our local areas. In
MSP, we have neighborhoods
that historically were settled by different ethnic groups - lots of
Scandinavians in this region.
In recent decades we have Hmong, Somali, and Mid-East cultures
settling in.
MSP? I'm not sure I know where you hail from.. the UK?
The article you linked referred to a Woodard article at Tufts. I link
it here. It takes the basic
11 Nations Framework and uses it to review gun violence in America.
Coming from a neo-frontier gun-culture, I am saddened by the texture
and the level of gun abuse/violence we have today. It is paralleled
(and surely eclipsed) by the violence we do to ourselves and eachother
through addiction and economic warfare (home and abroad). I think
much of our gun violence has roots in deeper places (poverty,
addiction, loss of identity)... one can say "guns don't kill people"
"people do" or "bullets do" but our socioeconomic conditions are what
set the stage for it in many ways.
I have seen other articles
by Mr. Woodard concerning the Tea Party in reference to the early
October Gov't shut-down.
See my thoughts on Tea Party under separate cover.
If this turns out to be a little (more than usual) ragged, it is
because my internet has been out most of the day and I'm now trying to
get this out in case I lose it again.
- Steve
At Tuffs on Gun Violence:
http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html
At Washington Monthly on Gov't Shutdown:
Oct. 15, 2013: Regional Differences Have Doomed the Tea Party
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2013/10/regional_differences_have_doom047323.php
Nov/Dec 2011: A Geography Lesson for the Tea Party
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/novemberdecember_2011/features/a_geography_lesson_for_the_tea032846.php?page=all
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cultures/dp/0143122029
I admit to lacking the chops to professionally "vet" Mr. Woodard's
theory. However, the book
has verisimilitude in its structure and is heavily documented. I hope
to hear more from you
for an additional point-of-view.
Thanks,
StephT
On 11/8/2013 11:27 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
An alternative view to the (I can't help but hear it in Dr. Suess'
cadence) Red-State Blue-State version of Murrica. I don't agree
with it in detail but in sweeping generalizations (5.5x less general
than red/blue?) it captures what I know our cultural "melting pot"
to be crufted into:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/08/which-of-the-11-american-nations-do-you-live-in/
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