A Cultural Paradox

You see, South Carolina is more than a geographical place. It is also a state of mind. That is to say, that whatever birth put into our minds, it intended for it to remain there. Although I still retain my Carolina mind, I have done so with a great deal of thought on whether or not to totally empty it of my so-called Southern birth right. On second thought, I decided to only half empty it.

The German word Weltanschauung describes this state of mind perfectly as a way of looking at the world, a world view, or a philosophy of life. But, to South Carolinians, known as Sandlappers, we changed that perfectly good word just a little bit--to rather mean a perspective of life which must be inherited rather than learned.

Our old perspective of life actually was inherited, and it determined our focus well into the twentieth Century--we were what we were, our perspective was what it was, because our ancestors were what they were--and we liked that. Therefore, we thought like they thought and we acted like they acted. Oh, forget genes. They were not important. Ancestors were. Well, anyway, Sandlappers knew how to separate genes from the ancestors, you see, and that made a difference to us though it made no sense to non-Sandlappers. To know who we were we had to know from whence we came. That required an ancestor. Now, as then, every Sandlapper school child knows from kindergarden on that we descended from our ancestors and not apes. That is a given. Genes are nebulous. Only native South Carolinians were able to understand what was understandably non-understandable to those not born in the Palmetto State, or so we thought. Today, out outlook has somewhat changed, possibly for the better. Our 2002 world view is now more inclusive. It is working and we like that, too.

In other words, it is no longer difficult, or impossible to move to South Carolina and be assimilated and acculturated. We understand that we have not always been understood. But it really is not our fault. You see, it is this Weltanschauung thing-a-ma-jig that originally caused problems--so we had to change the definition to mean what it really should mean, but never said. Now, that should be perfectly clear. No? Ummm. Okey-Dokey. Said another way, we are really quite similar to the folks born in the lovely state of Maine. The difference being, they are born north of the Mason-Dixon Line; we are born south of it. Ah! Now there is understanding! But the last time I looked for that Line, it was nowhere to be found, though it should have been there--according to history books, that is.

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