Rich Hailey says that East Tennessee makes for better blogging. Michael Silence posits that East Tennessee blogs better because of the dominant strain of Ulster-Scot (or Scots-Irish if you prefer) culture in the area.
Maybe. He says:
This is a fiercely independent and contrary area, two traits required to be a blogger. For example, I've often described the basic beliefs of East Tennesseans as "stay off my land and stay out of my wallet." I think the reason blogging is so strong here dates back to this.That's what I describe as the quality of orneriness. But is Middle Tennessee less Ulster-Scot? Are the rolling hills and gentler topography a moderating influence on the temperament of the Middle Tennessean? I'd certainly point out that Knoxville has always punched above its weight in the literary stakes. But that's not blogging.
And if this is a matter of genetics...where are the famous Ulster bloggers? Or did the orneriest leave Northern Ireland between 1706 and 1760? Perhaps the Vol-in-Law, half Ulster-Scot and raised outta Belfast can chip in?
And what does Jim Webb have to say on blogging in Born Fighting - a recent-ish study of the Ulster-Scots culture? I don't know, I haven't read it - but the Vol-in-Law and his mother* - a genuine Ulster-Scot and mean as a one-eyed cat - both loved it.
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*I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog.
5 comments:
There are some Northern Ireland bloggers, they tend to be pretty focussed on local politics, for understandable reasons.
I think you're right that the independent spirit of the Scots-Irish is an aid to good blogging, but perhaps an atmosphere of freedom helps too. East Tennesee has always been ornery and independent minded, I think they declared for the Union in the Civil War just to annoy their neighbours. :)
Born Fighting was published before blogging really hit the scene, but it would probably be safe to say that had it not been for the bloggers who created a groundswell of support for the DraftWebb movement that Webb would not have run for the Senate. He is unusually attuned to the blogger community and is planning to live blog today at 5:00 p.m. EST at DailyKos (http://www.dailykos.com/), a national progressive blog.
Although there are conservative blogs in the US they are far outnumbered by the Democratic and Progressive blogs. Blogging does seem to appeal to the independent minded and persnickety, which fits in well with the theory that the American Scots-Irish are particularly open to the idea. After all, the Scots-Irish culture in America is more a state of mind than an actual ethnic identity.
Oh, and I couldn't let Vol-in-Law's point about the East Tennesseeans go unremarked. Shows he knows more about the complex history of the South during the Civil War than most Americans. Not only were the East Tennesseans Unionist in sentiment, so were western Virginians (look at West Virginia!), and western North Carolinians. Most people where I live in Northern Virginia have no idea that Baileys Crossroads, between Falls Church and Alexandria, was mostly Unionist, while just two miles down the road at Seven Corners on the outskirts of Falls Church the sentiment was predominantly Confederate.
Vol-in-Law's point that the East Tennesseeans were just being difficult is probably right on the money. After all, as Webb pointed out in Born Fighting one of his ancestors, a Kentuckian named Hodges, opted to fight for the Union because the Confederates invaded his part of the state first. That's orneriness.
Webb also makes the point in Born Fighting that since the Appalachians had no plantation agriculture and thus hardly any slavery, there was no economic interest in secesssion. While 'Don't Tread on Me' and States Rights is certainly an appealing idea to the Scots-Irish mindset, like you said it really just depends on who seems to be pushing you around more - the local powers (Tidewater aristocrats, say) or the more distant national government.
Webb talks a lot in the early part of Born Fighting about the similar ambivalent (at best) relationship between the Scots-Irish and the Anglican ruling class of England, and the religious tensions that preceded emigration at the start of the 18th century. This tension could sometimes supplant the enmity with the Irish Catholics, especially when one was down and the other up, as after the Irish defeat in 1690 and the growth of British power under William & Mary, Anne and then the Georgian monarchs. By contrast the development of full religious liberty in the 19th century and then the decline of the British Empire and the emergence of the Irish Republic as a Catholic state in the 20th had the opposite effect, causing modern Ulster Protestants to cleave closely to their British identity. The modern IRA terror campaign of ca 1968-97 strengthened this dynamic.
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It must be something in the water...
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