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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (17201)	11/22/2003 8:55:44 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793694

Memo: The Cowboy Way/Or That’s the Way They Do It In Texas From: Sgt. Mom To: Assorted European Intellectuals and Those Americans Who Wish They Were Also Re: On Being Snookered by an Archetype 1. Really, people, I am getting the feeling that you have never paid attention to all those stories and jokes about smart, cosmopolitan types who ventured out into the sticks to patronize the local yokels and wound up loosing their shirts, or their wallets, or at least a couple of illusions regarding making an assumption about a person based on that persons’ dress, accent, and apparent class (or lack thereof) when said yokels out-slicked the city slicker. 2. In flyover America, that vast chunk between the coasts, there exists a large subculture of Americans who practice a form of reverse snobbery, for several reasons: First, they don’t give a rats’ ass about impressing others, secondly, as egalitarians, they prefer comfort over sartorial splendor, and finally they do it for a calculated effect to disarm others--- just look at Michael Moore. (YOU look at Michael Moore, myself, I have a low gross-out threshold.) This reverse snobbery in dress and demeanor is nowhere more marked than in Texas. 3. Clothes make the man, so goes the saying: the bespoke suit, the perfectly knotted silk tie, the tasteful watch and cufflinks, the carefully selected shoes, an expensive education displayed in accent and attitude--- we all interpret this display as readily as we pick up on a pair of old jeans, a faded shirt, cowboy boots and an inarticulate Texas drawl. All cultures have these or equivalent cues. We pride ourselves on being able to distinguish what we can about the people we meet, on picking up these cues, and a large body of people who metaphorically blow a raspberry and dress down confounds the conventional wisdom. In Texas, all bets are off. This is a place where guys derive innocent merriment by dressing like a kicker and pulling out a platinum credit card in a swanky restaurant, just for the fun of watching the maitre d’ who was on the verge of calling security fall all over himself. Taking the piss out of snobs around here is a favorite sport. 4. Go right ahead and patronize the guy in jeans and a lamentable workshirt, and look down your nose at that beater of a pickup, if you must, but be warned, you do so at your peril. Around here, he may turn out to be the third richest man in the state, the chair of Classical literature at a major university, a leading heart surgeon, or the President of the USA. Or he could just be a small rancher from the panhandle, but damned if you’ll be able to tell by looking, and if you get suckered into a poker game, don’t tell me you haven’t been warned. 5. Finally, I wish the POTUS would learn to pronounce nuclear correctly, but that’s just me. Hoping you’ll take this to heart Sgt. Mom sgtstryker.com