Big Tex was a an icon of the Texan west (the part that's still not part of greater Mexico (texicana) .... at 52ft (16m) tall, this cowboy had stood overlooking the State fair grounds for 60 yrs, like a Midwestern 'Statue Of Liberty' .... "bring me your hot dogs, bring me your poor bored children, bring me your carnie folk!"
Sadly, like the white middle America of the 1940's and 1950's that he represented, he is no more, burnt down in an unexplained fire whose cause has not been determined. There are plans to rebuild him "bigger and better for the 21st Century" but one can't help feeling that it will be neither.
The days of a confident white America are seemingly gone ... enclaves and 'white flight' into gated ghettos (fleeing from their 'fellow Americans' who are seemingly not interested in the Protestant work ethic), are the long term future.
In the meantime, as it looks around it at the world, the country faces a less confident future than those oil cowboys of the 1950's. Its the end of an era the like of which we may never see again.
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| Big Tex at Texas State Fair |
Sadly, like the white middle America of the 1940's and 1950's that he represented, he is no more, burnt down in an unexplained fire whose cause has not been determined. There are plans to rebuild him "bigger and better for the 21st Century" but one can't help feeling that it will be neither.
The days of a confident white America are seemingly gone ... enclaves and 'white flight' into gated ghettos (fleeing from their 'fellow Americans' who are seemingly not interested in the Protestant work ethic), are the long term future.
In the meantime, as it looks around it at the world, the country faces a less confident future than those oil cowboys of the 1950's. Its the end of an era the like of which we may never see again.
'White flight' from London is so great that only 46% of the population is 'White British' anymore ..... they are fleeing the new Britons (both black and brown), who don't support the aspirations that created the country.
ReplyDeleteThe golden days up until the 1960's seem a long time ago now.