Southern Culture On The Skids

alicublog has kindly provided another listing for the Just Another Blog (From L. A.)™ Neurosis & Psycho-Sociopathology (And Not in a Good Way)© bogroll way down there on the sidebar. This newest one, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, falls under the category of Angry Old (And Often Dead) White Guys w/ a patina of academia & an abiding respect for, you know, the classics, i. e., anything produced by a Greek who's not alive to defend himself against the misinterpretations of his work w/ which these clowns come up. Just regard the picture of the author, one Clyde N. Wilson, and the first three words of his take on our culture: "My late friend..."

Everything that America has produced in literature and music of enduring cultural value since the mid-20th century has come from Southerners who were raised in an environment that was still incompletely conquered by Yankee pragmatism. Whether our Southern bit of cultural residue will survive for much longer, and whether it can possibly do so without political separation from the American Empire, are questions that will probably be decided in the present rising generation.

One can respond to that only w/ a resounding "Say what?" and perhaps a request for an example or two of this fine Southern culture. Or a definition of "enduring cultural value."

alicublog also provides, by the mention of Daniel Larison & his invocation of "Patriarch Anthimus," a chance to direct our loyal following reader(s) to a TNR item about where the evangelicals &or fundies may be taking their toys when the current version of the Republican Party collapses (fingers crossed) & the less political among them find that megachurches, the "prosperity gospel," & hypocritical moralizing from the pulpit aren't cutting it for them either.

As Daniel Larison, a conservative writer and Orthodox convert who attends a Russian Orthodox Church in Chicago, says, "As a general rule, the sermons are going to be related to the gospel and that's about it. Political themes and political ideas don't come into sermons directly. That's not why people are there. They want to keep that as far away as possible."

A Modest Proposal from The Editor: We find out exactly what is involved in this "hard-wired for religious belief" mutation, round up all those cursed therewith (and who curse us w/ its manifestations) and send them to the afterlife they so anxiously await. Now. Starting w/ Pope HitlerYouth & the Archbishop of Canterbury and proceeding East through every patriarch, metropolitan, imam, ayatollah, mullah & Hindu muckety-muck, right across the Pacific where we get every pastor & his flock. And any other cults we've forgotten.