After three and a half years living in Texas, Steve and I finally watched Giant, which, though dated, certainly does capture many of the cultural traits that make Texas Texas. But you don't need old movies to find the Texan combination of hypercompetitiveness and grievance. You just need Dallas Morning News headlines. These led Sunday's front page and Metropolitan sections:
Texas lagging in federal art grants
Bush Turnpike takes big lead over tollway
Come to Texas, where even highways want to be number one!
This combination of competitiveness (We're number one!) and grievance (We're getting screwed, dissed, etc.) is characteristic not just of Texas but of Jacksonian America more generally. It's both a spur to greatness and the source of various pathologies, from endless lawsuits to bar brawls and gunfights.
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