Thalassa
Permabanned
- Joined
- May 3, 2009
- Messages
- 25,183
- MBTI Type
- ISFP
- Enneagram
- 6w7
- Instinctual Variant
- sx
In late childhood and my teens, I openly romanticized
the 19th century. This wasn't far fetched for a Southern child raised close to her grandparents, who additionally reached puberty sometime in the middle of the Period Drama craze in film, as well as the popularity of the Anne Rice sagas, and the amazing 1990s rendition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact, as someone who majored in literature the first go round at university, many of my favorite works of fiction were written between the late 1700s and early 1900s - there's still much to be gleaned from Tolstoy and the Bronte sisters. I continue to enjoy the old school film versions of Dickens' A Christmas Carol during the holidays. One of the most embarrassing details is likely a period of high school when I considered changing my name to something more old fashioned sounding, and began decorating my personal space to mirror that of a middle class white girl of the mid-to-late 19th century. I guess it's not that embarrassing - but I was so entrenched in my historical fantasies that I glossed over the "bad stuff."
In my 20s I retained my love of history, so much so that I was disabused of my prior illusions, understanding the abject cruelty, inequality and poverty which reigned for everyone who basically wasn't a middle or upper class white man - even wealthy women of the Era didn't share the same rights of their husbands and fathers. By my mid-20s, I despised right wing libertarians full stop, because I was enlightened at that point not only to the social hells of their chosen century, but to the reality of wild economic instability and environmental carelessness of 19th century America. I began to prefer "period dramas" like There Will Be Blood and Wisconsin Death Trip over confectionery fantasies about rich people.
While I retain my love of history and my valuation of the love of language that my ancestors treasured (versus the semi-literacy, which appears to prevail now due to television and consumerism), I can't fathom why a sizeable group of adults would base their government ideology upon an Era that I stopped romanticizing at age 20.
The conclusion I have come to is that sheltered middle class whites in fact enjoy a prolonged adolescence, in terms of real life experience. ..they are capable of residing in a bubble of fairy tale innocence where they are allowed to apparently unendlessly imagine that their teenaged views are practical in the real world. It's ironic, because from a social standpoint, it appears to be the white middle class who imagines themselves the most mature, with their passive entitled ways of communication, they think of themselves as the sensible adults managing the world.
Nothing could be further from the truth, at least in the cases where a person over 25, and as old as 60-70, thinks the ideal of liberty can be summarized by a time of child labor, slavery, no women's rights, no workers rights, and wild economic instability.
the 19th century. This wasn't far fetched for a Southern child raised close to her grandparents, who additionally reached puberty sometime in the middle of the Period Drama craze in film, as well as the popularity of the Anne Rice sagas, and the amazing 1990s rendition of Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact, as someone who majored in literature the first go round at university, many of my favorite works of fiction were written between the late 1700s and early 1900s - there's still much to be gleaned from Tolstoy and the Bronte sisters. I continue to enjoy the old school film versions of Dickens' A Christmas Carol during the holidays. One of the most embarrassing details is likely a period of high school when I considered changing my name to something more old fashioned sounding, and began decorating my personal space to mirror that of a middle class white girl of the mid-to-late 19th century. I guess it's not that embarrassing - but I was so entrenched in my historical fantasies that I glossed over the "bad stuff."
In my 20s I retained my love of history, so much so that I was disabused of my prior illusions, understanding the abject cruelty, inequality and poverty which reigned for everyone who basically wasn't a middle or upper class white man - even wealthy women of the Era didn't share the same rights of their husbands and fathers. By my mid-20s, I despised right wing libertarians full stop, because I was enlightened at that point not only to the social hells of their chosen century, but to the reality of wild economic instability and environmental carelessness of 19th century America. I began to prefer "period dramas" like There Will Be Blood and Wisconsin Death Trip over confectionery fantasies about rich people.
While I retain my love of history and my valuation of the love of language that my ancestors treasured (versus the semi-literacy, which appears to prevail now due to television and consumerism), I can't fathom why a sizeable group of adults would base their government ideology upon an Era that I stopped romanticizing at age 20.
The conclusion I have come to is that sheltered middle class whites in fact enjoy a prolonged adolescence, in terms of real life experience. ..they are capable of residing in a bubble of fairy tale innocence where they are allowed to apparently unendlessly imagine that their teenaged views are practical in the real world. It's ironic, because from a social standpoint, it appears to be the white middle class who imagines themselves the most mature, with their passive entitled ways of communication, they think of themselves as the sensible adults managing the world.
Nothing could be further from the truth, at least in the cases where a person over 25, and as old as 60-70, thinks the ideal of liberty can be summarized by a time of child labor, slavery, no women's rights, no workers rights, and wild economic instability.
); I would venture to say its the very conservative leaning libertarians that associate libertarianism with an 'era.' Most libertarians I know (including myself - since I loosely identify as a libertarian) do not yearn for some bygone era but stress principles of liberty and most are honest to recognize that those principles haven't always been consistently applied but that doesn't invalidate the principles themselves. 
