As a USian 'northie' myself, I certainly feel myself to be the object of resentment and a desire to be reckoned with by the 'southies'. For example, I have a cousin who lives in South Carolina and self-identifies as a southerner who never tires of trying to bait me on Facebook, and so forth. North versus South is something he thinks about every day, apparently. So much of "Southern" culture seems to be predicated on a defiance of the North, an insatiable need to get under our skin. See, for example "country" music and evangelical "theology"/ideology/politics. It's filled with defiance and resentment of values perceived as "northern" -- sophistication, urbanism, liberalism, irony and self-deprecation, for example. On the other hand I've never met a single Yankee similarly obsessed with how we are regarded in the South.
I think most "northies" have an attitude towards the South that is more like Rick Blaine's to Ugarte (Humphrey Bogart to Peter Lorre) in Casablanca: Ugarte: You despise me, don't you? Rick: If I gave you any thought I probably would. jrs On Aug 8, 2012, at 11:45 PM, Deepa Mohan wrote: > On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 8:48 AM, John Sundman <j...@wetmachine.com> wrote: >> In the USA it's all been about North versus South since 1845 or so. > > Surely the USA is not the only country where the northies look down on > the southies? > > Deepa. >
