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it begins.....1 to 3 inches of snow here tonight/tomorrow:cry:
- Thread starter copperhead
- Start date
copperhead
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[attachment 11559 mikesfamilyreunion.jpg]n/t
copperhead
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Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
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MK_(MO-snakedigger)
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Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
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copperhead
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MK_(MO-snakedigger)
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Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
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copperhead
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copperhead
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Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
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[attachment 11578 Wayne.jpg]
Some years ago, I visited my inlaws for Christmas. A local television station decided to celebrate the holidays with a John Wayne movie marathon; as I had never seen a John Wayne movie before, and I didn't feel up to the task of braving the shopping malls, I figured it was a good time to improve my cultural literacy.
I spent the weekend watching John Wayne. John Wayne the cowboy, John Wayne the war hero, John Wayne the Great American Patriot.
It was nothing if not educational.
John Wayne, born with the unfortunate name Marion Morrison, is an American cultural icon. He is not, however, a good actor. He does not lose himself in his roles; rather, his roles lose themselves in him. He played one character over and over again...in his movies and in his life. And that character was a particularly repugnant individual.
My first impression of John Wayne was that he was a clumsier and less intelligent Captain Kirk. His foremost impulse seemed to be to punch anybody that got in his way. Like the Unabomber, he believed that political and social problems can be solved with sudden violence. His moral landscape was charted entirely in black and white; complexity and ambiguity were as alien to him as the heart of Antarctica is to a butterfly.
In a sense, he died at exactly the right time. Had he outlived the end of the Cold War, in a shifting political and social landscape suddenly less polarized and more complex, I don't think he could have adapted. John Wayne belongs to a world where the certainty of the white man's ascendancy was as unquestioned as the morning sunrise; where America is always right, everyone else is always wrong, women always just a step or two below their men; where macho swaggering bluster always carries the day. His crass characterizations of Indians and Communists and women and everybody else not blessed to be a true red-blooded middle-class American sound, to modern ears, uneducated, racist, sexist, and hopelessly outmoded.
But, fortunately, he died before the world caught on to what kind of man he was. Doubtless, some people would have continued to revere him even if he hadn't made his timely exit; his brand of dogma will always appeal to the Pat Robertsons and Charlton Hestons of the world.
It isn't really that I mind his sanctimonious self-assurance or his macho posturing or even his unselfconscious racism. Really, what galls me most about John Wayne, and the people who admire him and his mode of thinking, is his unwavering belief that there is only one right way to live. For John Wayne and those like him, the whole of the human condition reduces to a very simple moral equation: People like me are right; everybody else is wrong.
This kind of knee-jerk reaction hardly makes for a great American patriot. Quite the opposite, in fact; the patriotism that expresses from John's six-shooter doesn't demonstrate how much he loved America, only how much he hated everyone else. John Wayne reduced patriotism to a reflexive twitch.
A real patriot knows that
Some years ago, I visited my inlaws for Christmas. A local television station decided to celebrate the holidays with a John Wayne movie marathon; as I had never seen a John Wayne movie before, and I didn't feel up to the task of braving the shopping malls, I figured it was a good time to improve my cultural literacy.
I spent the weekend watching John Wayne. John Wayne the cowboy, John Wayne the war hero, John Wayne the Great American Patriot.
It was nothing if not educational.
John Wayne, born with the unfortunate name Marion Morrison, is an American cultural icon. He is not, however, a good actor. He does not lose himself in his roles; rather, his roles lose themselves in him. He played one character over and over again...in his movies and in his life. And that character was a particularly repugnant individual.
My first impression of John Wayne was that he was a clumsier and less intelligent Captain Kirk. His foremost impulse seemed to be to punch anybody that got in his way. Like the Unabomber, he believed that political and social problems can be solved with sudden violence. His moral landscape was charted entirely in black and white; complexity and ambiguity were as alien to him as the heart of Antarctica is to a butterfly.
In a sense, he died at exactly the right time. Had he outlived the end of the Cold War, in a shifting political and social landscape suddenly less polarized and more complex, I don't think he could have adapted. John Wayne belongs to a world where the certainty of the white man's ascendancy was as unquestioned as the morning sunrise; where America is always right, everyone else is always wrong, women always just a step or two below their men; where macho swaggering bluster always carries the day. His crass characterizations of Indians and Communists and women and everybody else not blessed to be a true red-blooded middle-class American sound, to modern ears, uneducated, racist, sexist, and hopelessly outmoded.
But, fortunately, he died before the world caught on to what kind of man he was. Doubtless, some people would have continued to revere him even if he hadn't made his timely exit; his brand of dogma will always appeal to the Pat Robertsons and Charlton Hestons of the world.
It isn't really that I mind his sanctimonious self-assurance or his macho posturing or even his unselfconscious racism. Really, what galls me most about John Wayne, and the people who admire him and his mode of thinking, is his unwavering belief that there is only one right way to live. For John Wayne and those like him, the whole of the human condition reduces to a very simple moral equation: People like me are right; everybody else is wrong.
This kind of knee-jerk reaction hardly makes for a great American patriot. Quite the opposite, in fact; the patriotism that expresses from John's six-shooter doesn't demonstrate how much he loved America, only how much he hated everyone else. John Wayne reduced patriotism to a reflexive twitch.
A real patriot knows that
copperhead
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I don't know if the man displayed the same attributes or short comings as the actor. his movies were what the american people wanted to see. your indictment of the man must also be the same for his audience. given the choice of viewing his movies or the efforts of the likes of the current limp wristed "celebrities" that hollywood is foisting on the public i would still rather watch him knowing that he stood for something versus standing for nothing.
Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
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copperhead
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Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
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Brandon/ny
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copperhead
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