<<Do you examine a southerner in the same terms as you would ...a goblin?>>
On the internet nobody knows you're a dog - - or a goblin or a southerner. I got to know you, plane, over the internet. You're the only southerner I know; haven't met any dogs or goblins yet, far as I know.
At first I didn't know you were a southerner. I didn't start to "examine" you, but facts about you began to build up. Not necessarily in the following order, I learned about you: you were a strong supporter of the U.S. military; had served in the U.S. Navy and seen the world (but not in combat;) had Confederate ancestors and were actually quite proud of them; admired the U.S.A. and its role in world politics even after WWII; hated communism and socialism; belonged to a labour union; lived in Georgia and still hated General Sherman; were extremely gracious, polite and diplomatic; a real devotee of the Christian religion, which I'd always felt was a lot of pagan blasphemy with a nice ethical overlay that they almost never observed in their interracial or foreign relations . . .
I never really examined you, but the facts just kept coming in. And then at some point, I began to connect the dots: the picture began to look like what I had learned of the white southerners, none of whom I'd ever really met, though I'd passed through their region two or three times, starting with a road trip from Toronto to Miami Beach that I'd been taken on in 1948-1949 over the Christmas holidays, and of course, I'd read William Faulkner and Ernest Caldwell and all the MSM that streamed out of the South in the Fifties and Sixties. You were a southerner and many of your (to me) bizarre ideas began to become sort of natural, at least in terms of the person holding them. Right or wrong, that's the extent of how I "examined" - - or IF I examined - - a southerner. I found it a very interesting experience, and I hope I've properly thanked you for your openness and willingness to share ideas with me over the years.
BSB suggests coming to the subject with a "know-nothing" mind, a blank slate. I didn't actually do that, but then as our on-line relationship developed, I didn't really know in the beginning that I was examining you. BSB would probably say, that was my failure to be aware of what I was actually doing at the time that I was doing it. But IMHO, that requires a superhuman effort, a non-stop watchfulness that can be maintained only after lengthy training and then only imperfectly. The concept of "know-nothing" mind is interesting, but it seems like an unattainable goal for North Americans who live the way we do. Seems to me like the only practical way is to forge ahead with the tools we have, making mistakes along the way and corrcting for the errors as we become aware of them. Messy.
