It's Not Stockholm Syndrome. It's Antebellum Southern Syndrome . . .

More juicy nuggets from James Lee Burke's latest Dave Robicheaux novel. Now in preface, Burke is not a political writer. But I'm fairly confident he dresses left. He's a southern writer, and sets his stories in the South. But he manages to bridge the gap between the strong pull of southern nostalgia, and a deep and abiding loathing of the old caste system. He hates the exploitation, and the exploiters. And I know that because he puts those sentiments in the minds of his protagonists. And as a native son, he knows of what he speaks. Anyway . . .

To set the following quotes up, Dave Robicheaux is a detective for Iberia Parish. His case brings him closer and closer to one of them families; the Abelards. They are not an original southern aristocrat family, but one who set up shop down there close before the war. So they have been in the exploitation business for 160 or more years. And for the most part, Dave Robicheaux is rather unforgiving of them people (even if he tries as long as possible not to over harshly judge the patriarch of the clan.)

So here is the first critical quote:

""I'm not sure about anything when it comes to the Abelards," I replied. "Their kind have been dictators in our midst for generations and admired for it. They created a culture where sycophancy became a Christian virtue."" (The Glass Rainbow, p. 303.)

The next one:

"The real story was one that people seldom figured out. It was that the Abelards and their kind had taught others to disrespect themselves, and in large numbers they had done exactly that." (P. 313.)

Even if Mr. Burke was making more of a sociological point there, I see it as very political, and sort of answers the question why do so many GOPers (particularly southerners) vote for and in the interest of people who oppress them? These are the descendants, in many cases, of the very same sociopathic bastard families that have been exploiting their ancestors for generations.

Forget co dependent relationships. this is multi generational co dependence. And they do it so willingly, and with such passion, in many cases that they are a perfect example of Stockholm Syndrome gone regional.

And the odd part is in any given cluster, neighborhood in the South, you have the James Lee Burkes. You have people who's roots go back far enough in the bayou or in the county who know, and know rightly and properly, that those GOP bastards have been keeping the rest of them down for generations. They are the enemy. They are the parasites, and the wasters and the abusers. Granted, 50 years ago they might have been that weird version of southern sorta Democrats. Once the Civil Rights thing became law, the racist worst of them all ran off to the GOP tent. And they have been happy there, whistling their coded racist whistles and trying to convince the poor and the working folk that the plantation owners, opps, I mean corporations have their best interests at heart, and the real enemy is the Mexicans, and Affirmative Action, and the Muslims. (Never mind that good old boy down in the dell with the stockpile of Chi Com AK 47s and illegal AR 15s. He a constitution loving patriot. Until he sprays the crowd at a strip mall. And we never would be caught alive or dead at a strip mall, ourselves!)

But still. It's the same old exploitation that has been in place since the Antebellum days, just electrified and much more mechanized.

What exactly makes people respect sociopathy that much to vote for it's practitioners continued domination over one's and one's community's well being? This is not the sickness (and I have been there, trust me) of hanging on to some love interest way past the spoilage date. That's love. That's its own form of insanity, where self esteem gets transferred from one's own self to another.

Where's the love in a relationship with the socio political exploiting class? What's the pay back? What's the currency? I suspect Old Time Religion has something to do with it. I have waxed on that, here, in the past. But I am running out of steam so I will leave the questions hanging for now. Maybe I need to find and apply for a grant to do the research. Sure, some PhD candidate has done it before, I guess. But not with my eyes.

Oh. One last thing. There is another line from the book I want to share with you. Dave is talking to a member of the family who is about ready to give it up on the rest of them. She clams up, after getting handled by the patriarch. In pleading with her to give it up, Dave says to her,"Don't rob yourself of your own virtue."

I think lots of people who support the exploiters of the GOP do that, not only every time they pull the lever (or otherwise cast the ballot,) but in the way they live their lives, in thrall to people who really do not have the slightest bit of respect for them, and to ideals that are more likely to diminish them then uplift them.