I don't understand the South.

[jeff47]

22. It's romanticism and searching for someone to look down on.

IMO, it's a combination of romanticising the pre-civil-war South, and searching for someone worse than you.

The romanticism angle is similar to how we romanticise European middle ages. Everyone thinks they'd be the king/queen or a prince/princess. They ignore that most likely they'd be a peasant living in miserable squalor.

It's similar about romanticising the South - everyone would be in the upper class, own a giant house where people all said "sir" or "ma'am" and you wore fancy clothes to galas. An 1800's equivalent to the royalty of Europe. They ignore that most likely, they'd be in the lower classes, living in miserable squalor.

But that's just the "positive" imagery. There's also the negative.

Having someone "below" you on the socioeconomic ladder means "At least I'm not _______". There is very little effort to uplift in the South, because the people running the show are really not interested in doing that. But that alone would be unstable - the people not at the top of the ladder would realize they're getting screwed.

So society is set up to emphasize that there is someone worse than you. Sure, you've got a lousy administrative job that doesn't pay well, but at least you're not working at Wal-Mart. Sure, you're working at Wal-Mart, but at least you're not getting paid to hold up a sign by the side of the road in the heat and humidity. Sure, you're getting paid to hold up that sign in the sun, but at least you're not one of those people.

And they work very hard to make sure there is always someone to look down on. Because if the downtrodden actually started working together, the people at the top would be screwed.

Btw, this "look down on" system is not unique to the South. It's the SOP for conservative areas of the country.