12. Style

Let us now have a closer look at the stylistic means the author employs to convey his opinon to the reader.

1. The text is full of comparisons, especially similes and metaphors. A simile is a figure of speech in which two things or actions are compared because they have something in common, although they are unlike in many other respects. A metaphor is a simile condensed. Whereas in

a simile the imaginative comparison is expressed by the words like and as, in a metaphor the comparison takes the form of an identification of the two things compared. So when the author says that "patriotism is like religion" he uses a simile. When he says that "patriotism and nationalism are identical twins" which "infect people" he uses metaphors. The author uses the first metaphor in this sentence to illustrate the identical nature of patriotism and nationalism. The second metaphor suggests patriotism's harmful effects through the use of the word "infect," meaning to spread disease.

Look for more similes and metaphors in the text and explain their function. 2. This text has many satirical features because the author often uses irony and sarcasm to expose the "folly" of patriotism. Irony is a figure of speech in which the author stresses his point by saying the opposite of what he means. Sarcasm is aggressive and intended to injure. When the author ironically refers to the community as an institution providing a "noble identity," he actually regards this as a nonsensical idea. He is also being sarcastic when he compares patriotism with a disease. What other examples of irony and sarcasm can you find in this text?

13. Comment and Discussion

1. Do you think that the author's viewpoint is logically consistent?

2. What role does patriotism play in your country?

3. How do you feel about patriotism?

з Regimalism vs. Americanization

^{PART A Background Information}

A LARGE COUNTRY WITH MANY DIFFERENCES

THE NORTHEAST

The United States is a spacious country of varying terrains and climates. To get from New York to San Francisco one must travel almost 5,000 kilometers across regions of geographical extremes. Between the coasts there are forested mountains, fertile plains, arid deserts, canyonlands, and wide plateaus. Much of the land is uninhabited. The population is concentrated in the Northeast, the South, around the Great Lakes, on the Pacific coast, and in metropolitan areas dotted over the remaining expanse of land in the agricultural Midwest and Western mountain and desert regions. Each of the country's four main regions —the Northeast, the South, the West, and the Midwest—maintains a degree of cultural identity. People within a region generally share common values, economic concerns, and a certain relationship to the land, and they usually identify to some extent with the history and traditions of their region. Today, regional identities are not as clear as they once were. As with most modernizing nations, the United States has seen its regions converge gradually. While important regional differences are discernible, the mobility of people and the diffusion of culture through television and other mass media have greatly advanced the process of Americanization.

The Northeast, comprising the New England and Mid-Atlantic states, has traditionally been at the helm of the nation's economic and social progress. Compared with other regions, the Northeast is more urban, more industrial, and more culturally sophisticated. New Englanders often describe themselves as thrifty, reserved, and dedicated to hard work, qualities they inherited from their Puritan forefathers. A sense of cultural superiority sets Northeasterners apart from others. During the nineteenth century and well into this century, the Northeast produced most of the country's writers, artists, and scholars. New England's colleges and universities are known all over the country for their high academic standards. Harvard is widely considered the best business school in the nation. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology surpasses all others in economics and the practical sciences.

The economic and cultural dominance of New England has gradually receded since the Second World War. In the past decades, businesses and industries have been moving to warmer climates in the South and West. Many factories and mills have closed, and the population has stabilized or even declined. While areas of aging industry continue to suffer, some parts of New England

44 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

America on the» move»:

but which \v;i\:

THE SOUTH

are experiencing economic recovery. New high-tech industries are boosting foreign investment and employment.

Regional identity has been most pronounced in the South, where the pecu­liarities of Southern history have played an important role in shaping the region's character. The South was originally settled by English Protestants who came not for religious freedom but for profitable farming opportunities. Most farming was carried out on single family farms, but some farmers, capitalizing on tobacco and cotton crops, became quite prosperous. Many of them established large plantations. African slaves, shipped by the Spanish, Portuguese, and English, supplied labor for these plantations. These slaves were bought and sold as property. Even though the system of slavery was regarded by many Americans as unjust, Southern slaveowners defended it as an economic necessity.

Even after the North began to industrialize after 1800, the South remained agricultural. As the century progressed, the economic interests of the manu­facturing North became evermore divergent from those of the agrarian South. Economic and political tensions began to divide the nation and eventually led to the Civil War (1861—65). Most Northerners opposed slavery. The unresolved dispute over slavery was one of the issues which led to a national crisis in 1860. Eleven Southern states left the federal union and proclaimed themselves an independent nation. The war that broke out as a direct result was the most bloody war in American history.

With the South's surrender in 1865, Southerners were forced to accept many changes, which stirred up bitterness and resentment towards Northerners and the Republican Party of the national government. During the post-war period of reconstruction which lasted until 1877, slavery was not only abolished, but blacks were given a voice in Southern government. Southerners opposed the

Civil War (1861-65): the war between the Union (the North) and the Confederacy (the South).

REGIONALISM VS. AMERICANIZATION 45

intervention of Northern Republican politicians. For the next century white Southerners consistently voted for Democrats. The Civil War experience helpsexplain why Southerners have developed a reverence for the past and a resistance to change, and why the South is different from the rest of the country. Other regions have little in common with the South's bitterness over the Civil War, its one-party politics, agrarian traditions and racial tensions.

Recent statistics show that the South differs from other regions in a number of ways. Southerners are more conservative, more religious, and more violent than the rest of the country. Because fewer immigrants were attracted to the less industrialized Southern states, Southerners are the most "native" of any region. Most black and white Southerners can trace their ancestry in this country back to before 1800. Southerners tend to be more mindful of social rank and have strong ties to hometown and family. Even today, Southerners tend to have less schooling and higher illiteracy rates than people from other regions, and pockets of poverty are scattered throughout the Southern states.

Americans of other regions are quick to recognize a Southerner by his/her dialect. Southern speech tends to be much slower and more musical. The Southern dialect characteristically uses more diphthongs: a one-syllable word such as yes is spoken in the South as two syllables, ya-es. In addition, Southerners say "you all" instead of "you" as the second person plural.

The South is also known for its music. In the time of slavery, black Americans created a new folk music, the negro spiritual. Later forms of black music which began in the South are blues and jazz. White Southerners created bluegrass mountain music, and most American country music has a Southern background.

The South has been one of the most outstanding literary regions in the twentieth century. Novelists such as William Faulkner, Robert Penn Warren, Thomas Wolfe, and Carson McCullers have addressed themes of the Southern experience such as nostalgia for the rural Southern past.

THE WEST Wide regional diversity makes the West hard to typify. While most of the

Mountain West is arid wilderness interrupted by a few urban oases, California has some of the richest farmland in the country, and, along with Oregon and Washington in the rainy Northwest, does not share the rest of the West's concern over the scarcity of water. California is different in other ways. The narrow band along its southern Pacific coast is densely populated and highly industrial. By combining the nation's highest concentration of high-tech industries with the greatest percentage of service industries, California's pro­gressive economy is a trend-setter for the rest of the nation as it enters a new post-industrial age.

Even if one disregards the Pacific coast states, the rest of the West is marked by cultural diversity and competing interests. Mormon-settled Utah has little

Faulkner, William (1897—1962): American author of novels, short stories and poems. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949. Among his novels are The Sound and the Fury, As 1 Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom\ all of which are set in Yoknapatawpha, an imaginary Southern provincial community.

Warren, Robert Penn: born 1905, American author, won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel

All the King's Men.

Wolfe, Thomas (1900-38): American novelist, author of Look Homeward, Angel.

McCullers, Carson (1917—67): American author of novels, short stories, and plays; among her works are Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, and Clock Without Hands.

46 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

THE MIDWEST

AMERICANIZATION

in common with Mexican-influenced Arizona and New Mexico. The aims of Western commercial developers anxious for quick profits clash with environ­mentalists' campaigns for preservation of the region's natural beauty. Montana ranchers have different needs and different outlooks from the senior citizens clustered in a retirement community near Phoenix.

While generalizations about the West are difficult to make, the region does share concerns that are distinct from the rest of the country. Westerners are united in their long-standing hostility toward Washington and Eastern federal bureaucrats. Westerners feel alienated by government policies which fail to address the vital concerns unique to their region. Western states' troubles with water scarcity and government-owned land seem to matter little to the rest of the country. Particularly distressing to Westerners is their lack of control over Western land and resources. The federal government owns and administers vast portions of land in many Western states—86.6 percent of Nevada, 66.1 percent of Utah, 47.8 percent of Wyoming, 42.8 percent of Arizona, and 36.1 percent of Colorado. Westerners like to think of themselves as independent, self-sufficient, and close to the land, but they feel they cannot control their own destiny while Washington controls their land.

Western life is dominated by resources. Although water is scarce in the Mountain West, the region is rich in uranium, coal, crude oil, oil shale, and other mineral deposits. As the population of the West rapidly increases, debate intensifies over how its resources should be used. Trying to support growing populations with limited supplies of water while at the same time preserving the land is, according to some Westerners, impossible, and they feel the West is already experiencing physical limits to growth. Despite the differences that may exist within the region, the Western states face these problems together.

While the South and West have felt alienated, the Midwest, by contrast, has long been regarded as typically American. The fertile farmland and abundant resources have allowed agriculture and industry to thrive and to strengthen the Midwesterners' conviction that people can make something of themselves if they seize opportunities. Class divisions are felt less strongly here than in other regions; the middle class rules. Midwesterners are seen as commercially-minded, self-sufficient, unsophisticated, and pragmatic.

The Midwest's position in the middle of the continent, far removed from the east and west coasts, has encouraged Midwesterners to direct their concerns to their own domestic affairs, avoiding matters of wider interest. The plains states which make up America's "Farmbelt" have traditionally favored a policy of isolationism in world affairs. However, now that American agriculture has become dependent on unstable foreign markets, farmers have changed their stance. Farmers are no longer isolationist or opposed to "big government." It is often this very government which provides subsidies and price controls that preserve their incomes.

The Midwest is known as a region of small towns and huge tracts of farm­land where more than half the nation's wheat and oats are raised. Dominating the region's commerce and industry is Chicago, the nation's second largest city. Located on the Great Lakes, Chicago has long been a connecting point for rail lines and air traffic crossing the continent.

The distinctiveness of these regions is disappearing. The Northeast, the South, the West, and the Midwest are becoming evermore alike due to the homogenizing influence of mass media and regional convergence towards national sodoeconomic norms. Since the Second World War, interstate high-

REGIONALISM VS. AMERICANIZATION 47

MOBILITY

MIGRATION TO THE SUNBELT

ways and communication lines have connected isolated rural areas to urban centers, fostering a high level of cultural interchange. Television has conveyed mainstream American culture to everyone, giving Americans a shared national experience and identity.

Americans' mobility has also played an important part in leveling off regional differences. Americans have always been on the move in pursuit of opportunity. Steady movements from farm to city, east to west, and south to north brought about an intermixing of cultures. This process of Americanization has been accelerated by new migration trends. Poorer, less populous areas in the South and West are experiencing tremendous growth as people and businesses move out of the historically dominant Northeast and Midwest in search of new opportunities in wanner climates. The new migration has brought economic prosperity to the warm "Sunbelt" while economic stagnation has occurred in the "Frostbelt."

The attractions of the Sunbelt are numerous. Many older couples.have moved to the South in order to enjoy retirement in a less harsh environment. Others have moved to escape problems of urban crime, overcrowding, high taxes, and expensive housing. Most people move for better employment oppor­tunities. Many corporations are relocating to the Sunbelt because of the more favorable business conditions. Wage scales are lower, unions are weak, and local governments offer a wide variety of incentives, including tax reliefs, to attract new industries.

U.S. REGIONAL MIGRATION: 1970-1980

NORTHEAST -2,828,000

NORTH CENTRAL -2,368,000

Figures indicate net

population gains or losses due to

regional migration between 1970 and 1980

Changes in Proportion of National Population

Percent increase Percent of total 1970-1980 population

		1970	1980
Total	T1.4	WOO	WOO
Northeast	0.2	24.1	21.7
North Central	4.0	27.8	26.0
South	20.0	30.9	33.3
West	23.9	17.1	19.1

Due largely to interregional migration, the proportion of national population in the South and West increased from 48 percent to 52 percent-a majority-in the decade between 1970 and 1980. During the same period, the imaginary "centre of U. S. population " (defined as the geographical point where the country would balance if it were flat and every American weighed the samel crossed the Mississippi River, continuing the westward drift evident since the first census in 1790.

48 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

These recent migration patterns have had a dramatic effect on populationgrowth. During the past few decades the populations of the South and West have been growing rapidly while those of the Midwest or Northeast have grown slowly or not at all.

The increase in numbers moving to the Sunbelt has brought an increase in power. The political and social status of the South and West is on the rise. After both the 1970 and 1980 censuses, the South and West gained seats in the House of Representatives at the expense of the North and Midwest. Historically, the winners of presidential elections have been Easterners or Midwesterners, but Southerners and Westerners have won the past five presidential elections. A clear rise in per capita income in the South and West is an indication that socioeconomic gaps between regions are narrowing. In 1940 the Northeast claimed more than 120 percent of the national income average, but the core of the South had less than 70 percent, and the Rocky Mountain states had just over 90 percent. By 1970 the Northeast had fallen to about 110 percent, the South had risen to 86 percent, and the Rockies had held steady at 90 percent. Further narrowing had occurred by 1980. The cultural dominance of the North­east and Midwest is diminishing as cities in the South and West, such as Atlanta, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles, are gaining reputations as important cultural centers. The great universities of the Northeast are rivaled by Stanford in California and the Universities of Texas and North Carolina.

The shift in economic strength and status to the Sunbelt does not mean that the Northeast and Midwest are drained of power and promise. Parts of the Northeast are recovering from economic decline. Adapting to the needs of a post-industrial age, many communities are redirecting their economies to accommodate new service-related and high-tech industries. The downtown areas of Baltimore, Boston, and Pittsburgh—cities that once specialized in heavy industry—have been rebuilt as cultural and convention centers. Some cities in the Frostbelt are registering a resurgence in population growth as people move back to take advantage of new opportunities.

REGIONAL The most significant trend is not the decline of the Frostbelt, but rather a

CONVERGENCE steady converging of the regions' economic status as the formerly lagging

Sunbelt states catch up. In this process, regional differences have not altogether

disappeared, but they are significantly less striking today than they were 40

years ago.

49

_{PART В Texts}

^{• THE COOLING OF THE SOUTH}

by Raymond Arsenault

In the following text the historian Raymond Arsenault chooses a very interesting approach for his analysis of

the "Americanization of Dixie" when he looks at the air conditioner as one of the important factors involved.

A Southern family circa 1914

Tied to the land, with few big cities, Southerners treasured life on the family homestead or in the small town where, in the words of Faulkner, "beneath the porticoes of the courthouse and on benches about the green, the city fathers sat and talked and drowsed..." Family ties and local folklore ruled life in a region

that preferred, as John Crowe Ransom said, "to look backwards rather than forwards". Long after the Civil War, the inhabitants of the old Confeder­acy remained culturally distinct, a people apart from the rest of the Union and its ever-changing ethnic "melting pot". Air conditioning has helped to change all that.

50 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

1. continued

Many Southerners who are old enough to remember life before the air conditioner give thanks for the artificial chill that now pervades cars, restaurants, offices, and family rooms, and wonder out loud how they ever survived without it. Others echo the sentiments of one Florida woman who recently told me: "I hate air conditioning; it's a damnfool invention of the Yankees. If they don't like it hot, they can move on back up north where they be­long."...

The northern migration of the last two decades has infused the South with new ideas and new manners, ending the region's long-standing cultural isolation. And with this increasing diversity, the legacy of the old Confederacy has begun to fade.

The changes wrought in the South by the air conditioner helped, of course, to speed the demo­graphic transformation. By making life in the fac­tory more bearable, climate control nurtured the expansion of industry in the New South. The number of Southerners employed in manufacturing exceeded those employed in agriculture for the first time in 1958. By 1980, factory workers out­numbered farm laborers by a margin of 3 to 1....

Since 1940 the South has also been the most rapidly urbanizing section of the country. The pro-

portion of the Southerners living in urban areas has nearly doubled, from 36.7 percent to almost 70 percent today. Although its population still remains the most "rural" in the United States, the South and the rest of the nation are no longer that far apart....

A more noticeable effect of air-conditioned architecture has been its assault on the South's strong "sense of place". Epitomized by the fictional inhabitants of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, Southerners have been rooted to local geography — to a county, town, neighborhood, or homestead. As look-alike chain stores, tract houses, glass-sided skyscrapers, and shopping malls overwhelm the landscape in and around cities and towns, this sense of local identity is bound to fade.

Perhaps, as it has done so often in the past, the Southerner's special devotion to regional and local traditions will ensure the survival of Southern folk culture. But this time it won't be easy: General Electric has proved a more devastating invader than General William Tecumseh Sherman. As long as air conditioning, abetted by immigration, urbani­zation, and broad technological change, continues to make inroads, the South's distinctive character will continue to diminish, never to rise again.

Dixie: The southern states of the U.S., especially those eleven that formed the Confederacy and seceded from the United States in 1860—61.

Faulkner, William: see page 45. Civil War: see page 44.

Yankee: a native or inhabitant of a northern U.S. state, especially a Union soldier during the Civil War.

Yoknapatawpha County: the fictional setting of many of Faulkner's novels and short stories.

General Electric: a large American corporation.

Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-91): American Union General in the Civil War.

REGIONALISM VS. AMERICANIZATION 51

^{Southern Women-StiffLadies?}

by CORA MCKINNEY

The following interview seeks to discover whether the "moon-

light-and-magnolia" stereotype of the "Gone-with-the-Wind"

Southern lady still holds today.

Southern belles

Question: When I think of the stereotypical Southern woman, what immediately comes to my mind is the image of the genteel Southern belle — the lady of the plantation — portrayed in so many books and films. Is this Southern lady a bygone figure of the past, or does the Southern woman of the 1980s have something in common with her? Answer: Oh yes, I think there are still Southern belles in the South today. It hasn't changed so much. I think you could say that the Southern woman is a breed that hasn't totally died out. She may not live on a plantation any more, but there are still Southern belles, and Southern girls are still taught to be Southern ladies. Question: What characterizes a woman as a "lady" nowadays?

Answer: A lady is gracious and charming and above all she's well-bred. I think that says it all. A

lady is a woman who is well-bred and who feels well-bred and who is proud to come from a good family. I think the family background is actually the most important distinguishing feature of a lady. What's really important is that these qual­ities, these ideal qualities of charm and grace, are learned. They are passed on from mother to daughter in each generation. That's why the Southern lady today isn't that different from the Southern lady back in the antebellum South. The mothers pass on to their daughters the ideals of being a lady. And, in fact, the degree to which a Southern girl approximates her mother, or is like her mother, is a measure of the degree to which she is a lady. You can see in the South that Southern girls are willing to identify with their mothers, because there are lots of social functions and mother-daughter banquets sponsored by the

52 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

2. continued

cheerleading club, and there are even look-alike mother-daughter dresses that you can buy in fashion shops. So, Southern girls do well to be like mother.

Question: What about you? In what ways were you brought up to be a "lady"? Answer: For my twelfth birthday, my mother gave me a book called Party Manners and White Kid Gloves. This is a book that probably a lot of mothers give to their little girls when they reach the age of twelve. Party Manners and White Kid Gloves explains to little girls, or to young ladies, how they are to act to be considered a young lady. For example, I remember reading that when I go to a social function, I'm supposed to shake the hand of the hostess and say something nice to her and, well, it tells you all the little niceties concern­ing how you're supposed to act at a party and when you're supposed to wear white gloves and when not, and when it's right to light a candle. I remember reading that you're never supposed to light a candle at the coffee-table when you're serving guests unless it's evening. Otherwise it's bad taste. Well, okay, that's one example: we learn how to be ladies by reading books like that. And in my family, my sister and I took dancing lessons. There are many semi-elite dancing so­cieties which are especially popular in the South. When you're fourteen or fifteen and fortunate enough to be invited to join the club, you can participate in these dances. At the final balls, the final big function — (and we really do wear white kid gloves) — we really get to test our manners. This is one kind of training for becoming a lady. Question: Is it possible to distinguish a Southern girl from, let's say, a Northern girl, simply by virtue of appearance? Answer: Yes, very often. You see, a Southern girl is rather vain about her appearances, or at least that's the way I see it. You see, a Northern girl might wear rugged outdoor sportswear, for example, a skirt, long knee-socks, and comfort­able shoes. But when a Southern girl wears a skirt, she usually wears nylon stockings and some

dainty little pumps. That's one difference: that the Southern girl cares so much about her appear­ance she would rather be pretty than comfortable. Sometimes the Southern girl ties her hair back in little colored ribbons. She just looks more femi­nine on the whole. But I mean, there are also other ways to distinguish a Southern girl from a Northern girl besides just her clothing. Question: Do you think that a Southern girl is different in other ways as well? What about a political involvement and issues like Women's Liberation?

Answer: When you ask me that, I think of women on college campuses because I've just been to a university and I can best relate to the women there. There's really a big difference in the women on Southern college campuses com­pared with the college women in the North. What comes to my mind is that in the South the women aren't particularly interested in politics. They prefer to join social clubs. What's really popular in the South are sororities. They are sort of semi-elite societies. They are primarily social, and the women meet together and arrange social activities. They arrange parties and dances, and sometimes do things for charity. These sororities are really popular in the South. But in the North, they are not that popular. When I think about politics it seems to me that women in the South prefer being involved in things like sororities and partying and having a nice social life to being involved in politics. Politics is something controversial, and very often the Southern girl just avoids con­troversy. She prefers to be charming and gracious and never step on anyone's toes. But in the North, politics are important, and the ERA issue — the Equal Rights Amendment issue — was a very strong and controversial topic. But I think the Northern girls don't mind getting into contro­versies as much as the Southern girls do. You have to realize, for the Southern girl the highest virtue is to be gracious and warm and friendly and hospitable and always proud. And somehow that doesn't mix so well with politics.

Gone with the Wind: a novel by Margaret Mitchell (1900-49) featuring the American South before and during the Civil War, also a film classic.

antebellum: before the Civil War.

Women's Liberation: a movement striving for full educational, social and economic opportunities for women.

ERA: Equal Rights Amendment; suggested change to American law, intended to give women the same legal rights as men.

REGIONALISM VS. AMERICANIZATION 53

The Nation's Most StronglyDefined Region

New England, alone among the nation's regions,

has a precisely defined

identity. While people

may argue about what

the Mid-west or even the

South includes today,

New England consists of

CANADA

u'sa

Connecticut, Maine,

Massachusetts, New

Hampshire, Rhode Island

and Vermont — nothing

more and nothing less.

The inhabitants of this

region call coffee with

cream "regular" and car­bonated beverages "tonic."

They pronounce Bingo

"BeanO," and when they bowl they use candlepins

rather than tenpins. Those who live in Bos­ton, which most New

Englanders recognize as their regional capital, eat hot dogs, beans and black bread on Saturday even­ing, and on Halloween they drink apple cider. Above all else New Eng­landers arc Yankees, people whom all Americans think of — however accurately or inaccurately — as conscientious, hard-working, terse, frugal, and (like the climate) cold and inhospitable to outsiders.

Outside the United States people think of all Americans as Yankees, reflecting New England's tendency to project its own traditions, practices and beliefs onto the nation as a whole. The Puritans, who came to New England in 1620, were the first to articulate what was to become Protestant America's characteristic image of its place in the world. "For wee must consider that wee shall be as a Citty uppon a Hill, the ties of all people are uppon us," said John Winthrop, one of the Bay Colony's first and most influential leaders.

candlepin: a slender bowling pin used in a variation of the game of tenpins.

54 AMERICA IN CLOSE-UP

What is aMiddle Westerner?

A congeries of traits seems to be more or less characteristic of the breed, although no single trait is unique, and none is distinctive. None of them is mandatory for residence in the area, and one need not be a native to hold any or all of them. Some, at least, might be considered standard American traits, which is not especially surprising, because the Middle West, after all, is the American heartland. These caveats and provisos notwithstanding, the identification of this congeries of traits helps one to understand the people of the region and why they do the things they do. Most of the following adjectives are applicable in varying degree to most genuine Middle Westerners, as I perceive them:

Pecuniaristic: - A deep faith that all values can eventually be measured in terms of money: "the worth of a man is indicated by his income."

Materialistic: — Blatant worship of the almighty dollar, or even ostentation of income, is generally considered bad taste, but con­spicuous consumption can serve the same purpose: an expensive house in the "right" neighbor­hood, wearing the latest fashions, status-oriented travel to places others cannot afford to visit, the most powerful and expensive speedboat or snowmobile. Self-assured: — A value system based on money is unlikely to be questioned by a prosperous

Farming in the Midwest

people, and the Middle West has been enormously successful in terms of its own system of values; "somebody must be doing some­thing right." Critical re-evaluation of the value system has never really been necessary, and many Middle Westerners have seldom, if ever, been afflicted with self-doubts of their own righteousness. Functionalist: - "If it works, I'll buy it, and not ask any questions; if it doesn't work, let's get rid of it and get something that does work."

Technologic: — Almost unbroken prosperity (especially in com­parison with other parts of the nation) can easily be attributed to a predilection for the latest and most modern machines and tech­niques. New and better machines always have been invented in the

past: why should the future be different?

Competent: — An almost childlike faith in perpetual progress through technology is coupled with enor­mous technological sophistication and competence, and a profound respect for hard work. Simplistic: - "If I ask a guy why he does something, and if he gives me an answer that makes sense, I don't see any need to probe any deeper."

Xenophobic: — A suspicion of any­one different is reflected in an isolationist stance in international affairs, in a deep distrust of all governmental activity on the domestic scene, and by strong social pressures on all non­conformists, whether Catholic, Slav, black, long-haired, or bearded.

REGIONALISM VS. AMERICANIZATION 55

°'Just like the rest of us,only more so"

For more than a century, Americans have looked at California as something different, a "new" New World at the end of the continent, the ultimate expression of manifest destiny. It is a place as distinct from the rest of the country as America was from the Old World it rejected some 200 years ago. ...

It is difficult to characterize in a phrase a state that takes in over a thousand miles of coastline, a variety of landscapes and more than 22 million people. Nevertheless, it is often said that California is not just a state but a state of mind. For some, it represents the final embodiment of America's frontier spirit; for others, it is a version of El Dorado, a place to find fortunes or spend fortunes made elsewhere. California is the nation's leader in fads, fashion and self-indulgence. New religions, new living arrangements, new forms of entertainment from Disneyland to sexclubs, new attitudes towards work, family and education, all have been nurtured by California's tolerant social climate.

It may well be true that Californians are quintessential Americans. In a wealthy nation, they are wealthier than most; in a suburban society, they are more suburbanized; in a culture devoted to immediate satisfaction, they are satisfied faster; in a country where optimism reigns supreme, they are the most optimistic; and in a time of doubt and uncertainty, they have the most to be uncertain about.

The wealthy lifestyle of California

Californians, the saying goes, are just like the rest of us, only more so.

California stands for "absolute freedom, mobility and privacy," wrote author Joan Didion, a native of the state. It represents "the instinct which drove America to the Pacific .. . the desire ... to live by one's own rules." This sense of freedom extends beyond what has come to be known as lifestyle. It pervades the political atmosphere as well.

While California voters do not easily fit into hard and fast ideological categories, they have consistently been in the forefront of political trend-setting. . . .

manifest destiny: the nineteenth-century belief that the U.S. had the right and duty to expand across the North American continent.

frontier: see page 26.

56

_{part C Exercises}