We have lived in west Texas for 10 years to work in the oilfield. I have been both inspired and disappointed in largely equal measures. However, that last symbol you posted, Come & Take It, we have adopted into our life motto and it will go with us when we move back home to the SE. We cannot leave much of anything up to our leaders. The culture is us, who we are and what we do. And it is all too easy not to notice the rot creeping into the leadership that uses the symbols but do not govern the way we think they will. Texas leadership is no where near to the image at this point. And that is a shame. But we are going to continue to live how we think is best to the best of our ability.
Properly interpreted cultural symbols imply behavior. They imply action.
This is the hardest thing for mainstream conservatives to understand. They think that their only duty is to vote for the "right people" and that muh constitution will take care of the rest. Social media addiction, amazon, messed up hormones, processed food, and the refusal to read books surely have nothing to do with the mess that we're in now, right?
I lived in Texas for six years in the Dallas metroplex when in grad school. I saw very few cowboy hats -- less than I saw when I lived in Virginia. And WAY less open carry than I saw in Virginia.
But spent half my growing up in RURAL Virginia. Rural Texas is not Dallas.
(Some of my Texas born classmates were true Texans, and told tales of playing cat and mouse with the cops, riding in rodeos, and doing dangerous things with guns when younger.)
Contemplate this mantra: Rights not exercised disappear.
The rest follows.
See also the short story "His Share of Glory" by C.M. Kornbluth.
What you have described is cow-BOY "culture" or a "culture" created by yet to mature adolescent boys - George W Bush exemplified this syndrome.
Put in another way it is a (flatland) "culture" created by siblings as described by Robert Bly in his book The Sibling Society. A "culture" in which the overwhelming majority of its members have no vertical depth or height.
In the book Robert Bly refers to the Sufi understanding of the nafs pointing out (again) that with very rare exception almost everyone is dramatizing the two lowest naf levels - the bitter soul, and the blaming nafs. He then quotes a Sufi Master describing the Commanding Soul (nafs) which combine the bitter soul and blaming elements which implies that it is both dictatorial and tyrannical
"The commanding nafs is that which has not passed through the crucible of aesthetic discipline, or shed the tough (cowboy) hide of existence. It actively resists (and desecrates) all of God's creation. This nafs is of a bestial character that harasses other created beings and consistently sings its own praises. It always follows it own (gross level) desires and grazes on the (flatland) field of material nature; it drinks from the spring of the (gross level) passions and knows only how to sleep, eat and gratify itself"
Donald Trump is of course the "perfect" now-time manifestation of the Commanding Soul described above. He thus appeals to (and empowers) the bitter soul and blaming nafs - the MAGA phenomenon.
Unfortunately very few (perhaps none) of our politicians and leaders have incarnated and thus appeal to the next two naf levels - namely the inspired , and the nafs-at-rest.
Cowboy/Texas culture was a stand-in for the broader problem. As you point out, most of American (indeed, Western) culture has devolved to harassing others and singing its own praises.
We've inherited symbols from cultures that DID have more depth. Simply waving them around won't solve the problem. But they can point to behaviors - those beyond sleeping, eating, and gratifying ourselves - that might.
We have lived in west Texas for 10 years to work in the oilfield. I have been both inspired and disappointed in largely equal measures. However, that last symbol you posted, Come & Take It, we have adopted into our life motto and it will go with us when we move back home to the SE. We cannot leave much of anything up to our leaders. The culture is us, who we are and what we do. And it is all too easy not to notice the rot creeping into the leadership that uses the symbols but do not govern the way we think they will. Texas leadership is no where near to the image at this point. And that is a shame. But we are going to continue to live how we think is best to the best of our ability.
Properly interpreted cultural symbols imply behavior. They imply action.
This is the hardest thing for mainstream conservatives to understand. They think that their only duty is to vote for the "right people" and that muh constitution will take care of the rest. Social media addiction, amazon, messed up hormones, processed food, and the refusal to read books surely have nothing to do with the mess that we're in now, right?
I lived in Texas for six years in the Dallas metroplex when in grad school. I saw very few cowboy hats -- less than I saw when I lived in Virginia. And WAY less open carry than I saw in Virginia.
But spent half my growing up in RURAL Virginia. Rural Texas is not Dallas.
(Some of my Texas born classmates were true Texans, and told tales of playing cat and mouse with the cops, riding in rodeos, and doing dangerous things with guns when younger.)
Contemplate this mantra: Rights not exercised disappear.
The rest follows.
See also the short story "His Share of Glory" by C.M. Kornbluth.
What you have described is cow-BOY "culture" or a "culture" created by yet to mature adolescent boys - George W Bush exemplified this syndrome.
Put in another way it is a (flatland) "culture" created by siblings as described by Robert Bly in his book The Sibling Society. A "culture" in which the overwhelming majority of its members have no vertical depth or height.
In the book Robert Bly refers to the Sufi understanding of the nafs pointing out (again) that with very rare exception almost everyone is dramatizing the two lowest naf levels - the bitter soul, and the blaming nafs. He then quotes a Sufi Master describing the Commanding Soul (nafs) which combine the bitter soul and blaming elements which implies that it is both dictatorial and tyrannical
"The commanding nafs is that which has not passed through the crucible of aesthetic discipline, or shed the tough (cowboy) hide of existence. It actively resists (and desecrates) all of God's creation. This nafs is of a bestial character that harasses other created beings and consistently sings its own praises. It always follows it own (gross level) desires and grazes on the (flatland) field of material nature; it drinks from the spring of the (gross level) passions and knows only how to sleep, eat and gratify itself"
Donald Trump is of course the "perfect" now-time manifestation of the Commanding Soul described above. He thus appeals to (and empowers) the bitter soul and blaming nafs - the MAGA phenomenon.
Unfortunately very few (perhaps none) of our politicians and leaders have incarnated and thus appeal to the next two naf levels - namely the inspired , and the nafs-at-rest.
Cowboy/Texas culture was a stand-in for the broader problem. As you point out, most of American (indeed, Western) culture has devolved to harassing others and singing its own praises.
We've inherited symbols from cultures that DID have more depth. Simply waving them around won't solve the problem. But they can point to behaviors - those beyond sleeping, eating, and gratifying ourselves - that might.