This was a fresh perspective I hadn’t fully considered. The piece captures something real—the South has become a modern engine of sports, business, and migration. Trump clearly understands this and speaks directly to what drives the New South, not the myths others project onto it.
But it raises a deeper question: what replaces the old myth? The South once had a story—rooted in honor, land, tradition, and continuity. That myth gave people identity and direction. Today, it seems that myth is being swapped for college football and GDP.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but sports and business may energize a region—they don’t form a civilization. I’m a lifelong Coloradan, and the very idea of dying for the CU Buffs and Coach Prime is laughable—like something out of a sketch show. Then again, we’re not in the SEC. But something tells me people aren’t going to lay down their lives for the Crimson Tide either. What does the Crimson Tide represent?
And about that migration—take it from someone who’s watched it up close: when people move without myth, they bring their bad habits with them. Colorado used to be a solid red state, rooted in frontier values and common sense. But after years of influx from blue states, we’re well on our way to becoming California with snow. Maybe the South can resist that fate. Maybe the myth still has a chance down there—if someone’s willing to fight for it.
This isn’t just about the South. It’s the American condition. We’ve traded sacrifice for spectacle, duty for dopamine. What is our myth now? Because if it’s just consumerism in cleats, we’re not being reborn—we’re just accelerating the collapse with a marching band.
A civilization without a myth is just an economy waiting to be conquered. If we want to endure, we need something higher to believe in—and something worth dying for.
that great seer of American life, Tom Wolfe, described this regional transformation in his 1965 essay “The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson” and reprised the theme in the 1998 novel “A Man In Full”. The bravado - perhaps compensating - masculinity, the race issues subsumed to ‘business’, the Year Zero restlessness and erasure of roots
Our sphere has endless conversations about Right Wing Art but rarely if ever is the great man mentioned. Sad!
This was a fresh perspective I hadn’t fully considered. The piece captures something real—the South has become a modern engine of sports, business, and migration. Trump clearly understands this and speaks directly to what drives the New South, not the myths others project onto it.
But it raises a deeper question: what replaces the old myth? The South once had a story—rooted in honor, land, tradition, and continuity. That myth gave people identity and direction. Today, it seems that myth is being swapped for college football and GDP.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but sports and business may energize a region—they don’t form a civilization. I’m a lifelong Coloradan, and the very idea of dying for the CU Buffs and Coach Prime is laughable—like something out of a sketch show. Then again, we’re not in the SEC. But something tells me people aren’t going to lay down their lives for the Crimson Tide either. What does the Crimson Tide represent?
And about that migration—take it from someone who’s watched it up close: when people move without myth, they bring their bad habits with them. Colorado used to be a solid red state, rooted in frontier values and common sense. But after years of influx from blue states, we’re well on our way to becoming California with snow. Maybe the South can resist that fate. Maybe the myth still has a chance down there—if someone’s willing to fight for it.
This isn’t just about the South. It’s the American condition. We’ve traded sacrifice for spectacle, duty for dopamine. What is our myth now? Because if it’s just consumerism in cleats, we’re not being reborn—we’re just accelerating the collapse with a marching band.
A civilization without a myth is just an economy waiting to be conquered. If we want to endure, we need something higher to believe in—and something worth dying for.
that great seer of American life, Tom Wolfe, described this regional transformation in his 1965 essay “The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson” and reprised the theme in the 1998 novel “A Man In Full”. The bravado - perhaps compensating - masculinity, the race issues subsumed to ‘business’, the Year Zero restlessness and erasure of roots
Our sphere has endless conversations about Right Wing Art but rarely if ever is the great man mentioned. Sad!