From: natashavita@earthlink.net
Date: Wed Nov 27 2002 - 09:42:01 MST
Is cowboy mentality a postive or negative characteristic?
Sometimes it's no more than flinging lasos and wearing a holster. Rustling
cattle is one thing, but killing and eating cows is not something I support.
However, the cowboy mentality that I think is fascinating, and even
positive is the rouged, uninhibited, and 2-feet on the ground courage.
This is what I mean when I say cowboy mentality, just in case anyone has
been confused by recent posts flinging the phrase around randomly. :-)
But, let's take a look at American culture and what is meant by cowboy
mentality and how it reflects a sense of heroism and "we can turn in a new
direction: blending America's can-do drive and technology with the rest of
the world's cultural norms. Living within our means. Valuing community over
competition. Thinking seven generations ahead."
"Superman's brawny, know-it-all attitude won't cut it here. Brute force was
fine for beating the Indians and digging the Panama Canal, but now we're
dealing with bioengineering and nanotechnology. We need the subtlety and
cleverness of a Trickster to merge the old and the new."
Cowboy mentality usually refers to "That coarseness and strength combined
with acuteness and acquisitiveness; that practical inventive turn of mind,
quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things...that
restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for
good...these are traits of the frontier...." Frederick Jackson Turner,
_The Significance of the Frontier in American History_(1893)
American culture thinks of cowboys as character types. "We can consider the
archetypal knight—a sword-wielding hero—as a pre-industrial version of the
cowboy. Or perhaps the knight deserves a separate category as a
transitional hero between the gods/demigods and cowboys. In any case, this
figure used the best weapons technology of the time to impose his version
of order and justice. There are many examples of these proto-cowboys in
legend and fiction: King Kull, Conan, Elric, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser,
Beowulf, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Roland, the Three
Musketeers, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, Edgar Rice Burroghs's swordsmen,
Errol Flynn's pirates, Tolkien's Aragorn, Tarl Cabot, Dray Prescott."
Air and space cowboys are described as fictional characters like Captain
Midnight, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Tom Corbett, Captain Kirk, Han Solo,
Captain Archer/Enterprise.
Understanding American culture is more than skin deep. Most people outside
the US do not know much about our history because it is so new.
"Cowboys and superheroes
If we define 'cowboy' loosely as anyone who fights according to his (or
her) own moral code..."
Real cowboys: The Minutemen, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, George Armstrong
Custer, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickock, Annie Oakley, Jesse James, Wyatt
Earp, Billy the Kid.
Early pulp-fiction cowboys: Natty "Hawkeye" Bumppo, Allan Quartermain, the
Lone Ranger, the Cisco Kid, the Continental Op, the Shadow, Sam Spade,
Philip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, various detectives.
20th-century cowboys: Teddy Roosevelt, Elliot Ness and the Untouchables,
various G-Men, George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, the Green Berets, Barry
Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Daryl Gates and the LAPD, Bernie Goetz, various
gun lovers and militia men.
Early movie cowboys: William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Gary
Cooper, John Wayne, Alan Ladd/Shane, the Lone Ranger.
Modern movie cowboys: James Bond, Matt Helm, Shaft, James Coburn/Flint,
Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson/Death Wish, Sylvester
Stallone/Rambo, Arnold Schwarzenegger/Terminator, Bruce Willis/Die Hard,
Mel Gibson/Lethal Weapon, Indiana Jones, Brendan Fraser/The Mummy Returns."
Natasha
Natasha Vita-More
http://www.natasha.cc
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