1 thought on “Manifest Destiny Show 92: Toby’s Run”
The discussion around 1:12 about “who had it worse” – the White southerner or the modern White American, is an interesting question. In some ways they had it worse, in other ways we have it worse. They had parasites and fevers and we have druggies and diabetes. They had the lash and we have credit scores and prisons. I’m not sure that it was as easy to escape tyranny back then as people think because, these communities were small and it was difficult to escape into roadless wilderness outrunning trained cavalry. I think people are actually more miserable now, perhaps due to the effects of media and the fact that ignorance is bliss. When animals are studied in captivity, the biggest hallmark that things aren’t doing great, worse than hunger or competition, is if they fail to reproduce. By that benchmark we are doing way worse than the White slaves. People chalk up pop decline to the cost of kids in cities or something but poverty alone doesn’t explain anything. I think it has much more to do with a general kind of depressive dysphoria permeating everything depleting our natural vitality.
I haven’t read this book yet but I definitely will. Interesting how we still have punishments for workers who disrespect the plantation, but instead of being dragged through town, people are now attacked by journalists online and blacklisted. Studies have found that people fear hit pieces being written about them more than they fear physical pain. Back then you could move on to the next town, but you can’t move on to the next Internet. Evaluating all the areas of life where power is greater or lesser seems like a worthwhile experiment.
There is an article called How The South Won The Civil War, which may also be a book, about how southern policies actually spread throughout the USA after the civil war, partly because the north had no idea how to deal with this influx of blacks. Blacks were recruited as this pet minority by lib elites and the modern prison system spread. In the final act of Gone With The Wind, this shift is depicted as Scarlett O’Hara goes from being a plantation princess to being the administrator of a Reconstruction prison that is clearly populated by Whites. Although its a fanciful romanticization of the south, there are many truths hidden in that film, such as the house slaves’ adoration of the plantation. Surviving Civil War veterans (if they can be relied upon) claimed that Birth Of A Nation was an accurate depiction of enslaved southern blacks, and that film also depicts blacks as adoring of their masters, clinging to plantations, naming their kids after masters, cheering on the Confederate army. But then when the Yankees win, they just loot everything lol.
The discussion around 1:12 about “who had it worse” – the White southerner or the modern White American, is an interesting question. In some ways they had it worse, in other ways we have it worse. They had parasites and fevers and we have druggies and diabetes. They had the lash and we have credit scores and prisons. I’m not sure that it was as easy to escape tyranny back then as people think because, these communities were small and it was difficult to escape into roadless wilderness outrunning trained cavalry. I think people are actually more miserable now, perhaps due to the effects of media and the fact that ignorance is bliss. When animals are studied in captivity, the biggest hallmark that things aren’t doing great, worse than hunger or competition, is if they fail to reproduce. By that benchmark we are doing way worse than the White slaves. People chalk up pop decline to the cost of kids in cities or something but poverty alone doesn’t explain anything. I think it has much more to do with a general kind of depressive dysphoria permeating everything depleting our natural vitality.
I haven’t read this book yet but I definitely will. Interesting how we still have punishments for workers who disrespect the plantation, but instead of being dragged through town, people are now attacked by journalists online and blacklisted. Studies have found that people fear hit pieces being written about them more than they fear physical pain. Back then you could move on to the next town, but you can’t move on to the next Internet. Evaluating all the areas of life where power is greater or lesser seems like a worthwhile experiment.
There is an article called How The South Won The Civil War, which may also be a book, about how southern policies actually spread throughout the USA after the civil war, partly because the north had no idea how to deal with this influx of blacks. Blacks were recruited as this pet minority by lib elites and the modern prison system spread. In the final act of Gone With The Wind, this shift is depicted as Scarlett O’Hara goes from being a plantation princess to being the administrator of a Reconstruction prison that is clearly populated by Whites. Although its a fanciful romanticization of the south, there are many truths hidden in that film, such as the house slaves’ adoration of the plantation. Surviving Civil War veterans (if they can be relied upon) claimed that Birth Of A Nation was an accurate depiction of enslaved southern blacks, and that film also depicts blacks as adoring of their masters, clinging to plantations, naming their kids after masters, cheering on the Confederate army. But then when the Yankees win, they just loot everything lol.