Spotlight on Obscure Rural Characters

You know too often in Today's society people from the country are cast aside as rednecks who are just not "with it" and not hip.

However, in a lot of cases you will find that the rural person often has much more common sense than a Wall Street Yuppie.

Today in the Spotlight is Hank Patterson, probably best known as Fred Ziffel from the TV show Green Acres.



Mr. Ziffel was a man's man, he took no crap, respected pigs and lived by his wits.

Hank "Mr. Ziffel" Patterson also appeared on "Gunsmoke" many times.

Born in 1888 in Springfield, Alabama and died in California in 1975

WE SALUTE YOU HANK!!!

the*mad*gamer wrote:

Mr. Ziffel was a man's man, he took no crap, respected pigs and lived by his wits.

He respected pigs so much that he apparently hooked up with the one in that picture.

He respected pigs so much that he apparently hooked up with the one in that picture.

HA!!! Well, I bet she was a hell of a cook!!!

Far be it for me to belittle the rural population, having studied it to some extent, even through participatory observation (although by the time I left the countryside, it had become fairly suburbanised, it's a concrete jungle now).

But I am wary of extolling the virtues of the rural population (as if it is/was a homogenous group).

Barrington Moore in 'Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World' makes an interesting link between the political influence of conservative rural elites and dictatorship, legitimised by anti-modernist, defenders of the old order who denounce the perverting influences of 'the city'. Buruma and Margalit trace the origins of anti-western sentiments in the world and Political Islam in particular to the same (German) anti-modernists. So beware of the company

Jur wrote:

Barrington Moore in 'Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World' makes an interesting link between the political influence of conservative rural elites and dictatorship, legitimised by anti-modernist, defenders of the old order who denounce the perverting influences of 'the city'. Buruma and Margalit trace the origins of anti-western sentiments in the world and Political Islam in particular to the same (German) anti-modernists...

So what's your point, boy? ;>
Modernity is a crock of shit (but I do like boardgames).

Mad Malthus wrote:

Jur wrote:

Barrington Moore in 'Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World' makes an interesting link between the political influence of conservative rural elites and dictatorship, legitimised by anti-modernist, defenders of the old order who denounce the perverting influences of 'the city'. Buruma and Margalit trace the origins of anti-western sentiments in the world and Political Islam in particular to the same (German) anti-modernists...

So what's your point, boy? ;>
Modernity is a crock of shit (but I do like boardgames).

Just because my picture is a bit dark, don't make any assumptions about my 'race', massa'.

My point is, that even if rednecks are only a minority of rural population, modernity is what saved us from the Malthusian trap, brought us prosperity and hope. If it had been for peasants and their lords, you'd still be toiling in the field as a serf.

Jur wrote:

Far be it for me to belittle the rural population, having studied it to some extent, even through participatory observation (although by the time I left the countryside, it had become fairly suburbanised, it's a concrete jungle now).

But I am wary of extolling the virtues of the rural population (as if it is/was a homogenous group).

Barrington Moore in 'Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World' makes an interesting link between the political influence of conservative rural elites and dictatorship, legitimised by anti-modernist, defenders of the old order who denounce the perverting influences of 'the city'. Buruma and Margalit trace the origins of anti-western sentiments in the world and Political Islam in particular to the same (German) anti-modernists. So beware of the company

But the "Conservative Rural Elite" no longer exists. Now there is a "Liberal Urban Elite" who denounces the perverting influences of 'the country'. The sort of rural aristocrats Moore refers to don't exist anymore - they all either became urban industrialists, or were replaced by them. And anti-modernism is hardly unique to Germans.

Jur wrote:

My point is, that even if rednecks are only a minority of rural population, modernity is what saved us from the Malthusian trap, brought us prosperity and hope. If it had been for peasants and their lords, you'd still be toiling in the field as a serf.

"Redneck" refers to the red, sun-burnt necks of men who work outdoors. It's also connected to the term "Redlegs", which refers to the red, sun-burnt legs of Irishmen sold into slavery by Cromwell to be worked to death in the new world. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was responsible for "modernizing" England into a Republican Commonwealth.

Don't make any assumptions about where I'd be toiling

I have to disagree about the prosperity and hope supposedly brought on by modernity. The 20th century was the most destructive and horrific episode yet in human history with death by the millions, far in excess of any "Malthusian catastrophe" of the previous age. "Saving" all those people from living within more traditional limits has brought about overpopulation and all that goes with it, hand in hand with modernity.

Totalitarianism in pursuit of utopia is a modern invention, as is atomic warfare. The new ideology (be it socialism, capitalism or nationalism) makes a palliative (hope and prosperity) for us to comfortably ignore what's happening around us.

But all this has little to do with boardgames, which I like.

Cities are where culture, education and trade develop.

I'm not saying that city dwellers are better people. You can find idiots in the cities as well as in the villages at the same probability.

Still, I'd rather live in a city. And I grew up on a village.

Steve, have you seen Wes Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES?

Schweig! wrote:

Cities are where culture, education and trade develop.

That depends on what you mean by culture. If you mean popular culture, I agree. If you mean actual local culture, I think you are really selling rural areas short.

Anti-modernist culture from an obscure rural character:
kuksi.com/

I understand culture as an umbrella term for accomplishments of mankind in the fields of technology, visual arts (instead of performing arts), law, morale, religion, economics and science.

Folk art is something to be preserved, too, don't get me wrong.

Steve, have you seen Wes Craven's THE HILLS HAVE EYES?

Yes I have and it was one of the scariest movies I saw in the 70's

You and many seem to equate the rural population with films like that and "Deliverance" but it is simply not true.

The fact is the vast majority of rural people have great common sense, many call it "horse sense"

You would never catch them with multiple cell phones or TV's. Many would ask why you even have a cell phone in the first place because the vast majority of your calls and silly text messages are basically about nothing and are certainly not an emergency.

Most would question why you have so many boardgames and if you have that much free time on your hands to play all those games you probably aren't working hard enough!

Most rural people I know have a great sense of family and tradition that today's city dwellers do not.

I don't disagree with this.

See I'm grew up in a village. I don't own a TV. I use my cell phone maybe once a week.

I still prefer living in the city.

If you don't like people lacking common sense, don't hang out with them.

I also found some great cosmopolitan art:
www.brandonbird.com/

The Last Supper with everyone replaced by James Woods, + Robocop: