We are on the precipice of a catastrophe — and by now there’s nothing to do to stop it. The State of Texas, but more importantly the myth of Texas, lone star state, home to Texan cowboys etc, will be lost in ten to twenty years.
It’s useful to look first at California. America produced only several “types” over its 250 year run. The New England Yankee. The Knickerbocker and later the uncouth New Yorker. The Cavalier and Southern Gentleman. The pioneer. But each of these former has an old Europe equivalent. They were just transplants, really.
There were only two uniquely American types: the Californian and the Texan. And they fascinated the entire world like maybe no type since the knight. There is no place on earth where a significant amount of people have not dreamed of being the Californian or the Texan.
The Californian: born in a new Eden. Fruit and grain growing in the worlds best soil. Blonde, carefree. Tanned and healthy. Gorgeous. Driving American muscle cars on the sand to surf. Saltwater in Barbie’s blonde hair and bikinis at the bonfire. The Californian is not only post religion, he no longer needs it. He lives in heaven. He was probably America’s greatest invention, and most seductive archetype.
Gone now, of course. CA is a place that Californians want to escape. Imagine that shit. Imagine explaining that to people in the 20th century, all over the world dreaming of Malibu.
The Texan will be gone before we know it. I don’t just mean the state will turn “blue” or that this post is about partisan politics. Fuck the Dems but fuck the GOP too. This isn’t about something as small as which side of the oligarchy rules for four years.
The Texan — the essential model of self-dependence, silent manliness, homesteading, privacy, American individualism… he’s vanishing. Even if Texas voted red for 30 more years, the reaction to the power outages, etc shows there is no real cultural difference between a Texan man and a woman from New Jersey.
We will be alive for the loss of “California” and “Texas”.
Feels historic and unbearably sad.