KNOWING WHAT IT IS TO LOSE

by Virginia Postrel  •  Nov 18, 2003 at 4:43 pm

http://www.dynamist.com/614/knowing-what-it-is-to-lose

Instapundit corrects the mistaken view that Americans don't know what it's like to lose a war and thus can't comprehend "the humiliation of occupation." Glenn notes that:

In fact, of course, the American South knows what it's like to lose a war, and to be occupied, which may possibly explain why the American South is also far more military-minded than other parts of the United States -- or, for that matter, than London. And the American South certainly didn't like being occupied. Reconstruction was very unpopular, and my grandmother can still tell stories that she heard from her grandmother about Union soldiers passing through and stripping the place bare of everything except what they were able to hide, and of the years (decades, really) of privation that followed the war.

Southerners are, and were, extremely proud and prickly, which made the whole losing-and-occupation experience particularly unpleasant. (Taking offense at being dissed is not a black thing. It's a southern thing that blacks have only recently been allowed to express without fear of violent reprisal.) But, as Glenn notes, our ancestors eventually rejoined the Union and even became devoted to it. He doesn't note another effect, which helps explain his views and mine: If war is coming, Southerners know that it's better to fight on the other guy's territory.

Actually, most Americans are descended from refugees (or prisoners) from occupied lands of one sort or another. It's a tribute to the power of American identity that nobody notices.