John Schwenkler's advice for how to be a conservative in the San Francisco Bay area. I suppose some of this is helpful to any right-winger living in Deep Blue America. Anybody care to add to his list? Also, any liberal readers who live in Deep Red America care to add their own suggestions? It's easy to be nasty; try not to. Schwenkler -- who admits that his conservatism is idiosyncratic -- takes the point seriously. I think we'd have a more interesting discussion if we did too.
If I had a liberal friend moving to Dallas from San Francisco, the first piece of advice I would give him is not to freak out about religiosity. When I lived in NYC and would come to Dallas to visit Julie's family, it was striking to me how present Jesus-consciousness is here in Dallas. It's everywhere. The new Catholic bishop of Dallas, an Irishman who came here from DC, said that in his 30 years in the US, he's never seen a place like this one, where religion is so up-front and mainstream. Dallas is probably an outlier in that respect, but if you are a left-liberal secularist, you pretty much have to make your mind up at the get-go to live and let live about religiosity in the public square (on bumper stickers, billboards, etc, etc). And if you actually get to know a real live fundamentalist, you may be pleasantly shocked how nice and ... normal he or she is.
That's my first suggestion. Having lived most of my adult life in blue places, I would give much the same advice about homosexuality to a right-winger moving from Deep Red America to Deep Blue.
Do check Schwenkler's list out -- it's pretty interesting. For example:
3. Have kids, or get to know people who do. Procreation is cool now, haven't you heard? And there is, I think, nothing more authentically in keeping with the spirit of independence than unplugging from Big Medicine and shelling out a few grand to have your kids at home. My wife and I are, I suspect, presently acquainted with more Berkeley lefties who practice natural family planning and ecological breastfeeding than Catholics who do the same. And this works out okay for us, given where we live.
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Hey Susan, if you got my e-mail, just give me a ping. I'm always worried that I spelled the address wrong or something.
Wow, Chris, how did you manage to say pretty much all that needed saying in one sentence? I'll have to study up on your technique. ; )
I'm going to add, though--since I am inveterately loquacious--that another effective way to get along with your neighbors is to treat them like human beings rather than as defective vending machines whose buttons you push and whose panels you kick in hopes of getting them to cough up a candy bar without the bother of actually putting in some change. Which I guess is just repeating what Chris said.
Oh, Old Susan, for heaven's sake, you're acting like a troll. You put 23 posts on here in less than 24 hours -- not far from half the posts. People can't get a word in edgewise. You ended by ranting at Texans not to move to your part of the world. Settle down. I think you've scared everybody off. Please don't post more on this thread. Give somebody else a chance to say something.
Jillian: Oh, how charming that lying to The Other Side remains a permissible practice of virtue-based conservatism.
Jillian, I mean no disrespect, but if I had to live in your neighborhood and get along with you, I'd tell social lies all the time for the sake of comity.
Karen, thanks for the explanation.
Goodguyex, i haven't seen Matrix, just thought you used some vivid metaphors
"Jillian, I mean no disrespect, but if I had to live in your neighborhood and get along with you, I'd tell social lies all the time for the sake of comity."
Rod-- I think that's called good manners! I don't know what neighborhoods you people live in, but I've lived amongst all sort of people in all sorts of places, and never noticed that anyone of any persuasion was very eager to shout their opinions from the rooftops in their own neighborhood.
My tongue hurts from all the biting of it I've done over the years. If that's the price I pay for civil relations with my neighbors, then I have only myself to blame/credit for it.
There are, of course, some neighbors with whom I couldn't care less that my relations are less than civil. Tongue pain should work both ways, in my book.
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