Tim Manning
Mr. Manning has kindly granted us permission to re-post his essay here on Confederate Colonel.
I am thankful for my fb friends that support and agree with me on so many important social and political problems. Sometimes I am thankful for those who disagree me if for no other reason than it helps me to build character and patience. The problem that most old-time Southerners have is that there is a profound loss of good manners and civility in our beloved Southern States. We do not expect northerners to act like gentlemen and ladies, but we still maintain a higher expectation of fellow Christians and fellow Southerners. The problem has gotten to be that the process of yankeefication has polluted our Southern culture. Too many people no longer know the difference between good manners, moral character and business etiquette. I see that this is making reasonable dialogue on controversial topics very difficult for some people as I see it manifested on my fb pages.
At the heart of yankee Khazar Marxism, the sorry excuse for what yankees call a “culture”, is the disempowerment of the citizenry creating high levels of personal anxiety, frustration, financial insecurity and penned-up anger. In the farming communities that prevailed until after 1900 AD in the united States most people met and did business with less than three dozen people in their small rural farming communities. Centralization of government, a totalitarian goal of the Lincoln administration, removed the possibility of self-government and placed great political power in the hands of a smaller and smaller group of elitist in a system of the raw exercise of power and control which we refer to as an oligarchy. Fewer and fewer people gained a level of ungodly control over massive numbers of people, their wealth, their culture, their religion and their jobs.
In the early history of this country had people called each other names in the manner that some do on my fb pages, the matters would have been readily settled through a formal dual or a mutual beneficial visit to a corn field without the deleterious benefit of a second, courts or attorneys. The media and the U.S. Government even promotes this effeminate form of personal sniping and name calling which a large portion of our population finds this entertaining on the evening news. How long will we permit this denigration of our culture?
Yankee business etiquette is maintained for form and personal financial benefit. Southern good manners are maintained as the simple outflow of a moral, honest and upright personal character. Respect for human rights and human dignity is dead in most of the USA with only remnant pockets of good manners remaining in portions of the Southern States. God Bless the South.
Mark Curran, who has a web site dedicated to trashing the reputation of Robert E. Lee – and all of Southern heritage and culture, wrote a reply to this post. While I will not participate in his campaign against a great Southern gentleman, I will include enough of his reply to get his basic message across. If you want to get the full treatment, you can look up his site on blogspot. It is called Lee’s Papers. He does not permit any replies on his site.
The first sentence of his reply:
“The idea of the “Southern Gentleman” has fooled a lot of people for a long time.”
And the last sentence of his reply:
“Sorry, while Lee learned to outward manifestations of dress, and spouting a few scriptures, he was a brute.”
As I have written previously, I have no doubt that Robert E. Lee had days when he shook his head and wondered how he could have done such a thing. He was, after all, a sinful man just as every descendent of Adam is. The difference was, he understood that and did his best to overcome it and be a gentleman – and he was extremely successful at it.
Apparently, there is just something in human nature that wants to tear down anything that represents what is good and noble and just and honorable. Southern culture tries to subdue that tendency. Yankee culture apparently sees it as a virtue – if there are no heroes and noble role models, then “everyone is as wicked as we are.” That is basically where America is today as a society – the wicked and perverse and petty are worshiped, while those who strive to live in a righteous and noble manner are mocked and ridiculed and scorned.
Countering that trend is why we are here. As stated on the “About” page, our number one objective is to promote, encourage, and defend the code of the Southern Gentleman and Southern Lady as guidelines for daily living. Click on the “About” link for more on why we’re here.
Thank you for this site. I found it looking southern etiquette books. Let me introduce
myself. I was reared in the North. Growing up I always stated that I would NEVER live in the South. I married a military man and travelled to many different places. Eventually moving to Georgia and rearing our children there. Now my husband, youngest son and myself have moved to Canada. Needless to say I miss the South.
I was telling my husband that the South was being infiltrated with people who
first, do not appreciate the uniqueness of the southern manners and etiquette and
second, do not feel a need to pass the behaviors to their children. In a sense,
losing the part of a southern way of life. I am sorry for people who don’t seem to understand civility and want to ignore it by their behaviors.
Mrs. Hastings, thank you for stopping by and commenting! If you find some Southern etiquette books that are well done, I would deeply appreciate it if you would let me know about them. I’d like to include them here as a resource for aspiring Southern gentlemen and ladies.