How the west was spun
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1513699,00.html
As an exhibition exploring the heroic myths of the American frontier
opens in the UK Annie Proulx, who lives in Wyoming, reflects on the
grim reality behind the enduring fantasy of the lone ranch hand
Saturday June 25, 2005
The Guardian
The heroic myth of the American west is much more powerful than its
historical past. To this day, the great false beliefs about cowboys
prevail: that they were - and are - brave, generous, unselfish men;
that the west was "won" by noble white American pioneers and staunch
American soldiers fighting the red Indian foe; that frontier justice
was rough but fair; and that everything in the natural world from the
west bank of the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean was there to be used by
human beings to further their wealth. These absurd but solidly rooted
fantasies cannot be pulled up. People believe in and identify
themselves with these myths and will scratch and kick to maintain their
western self-image. The rest of the country and the world believes in
the heroic myth because the tourism bureaux will never let anyone
forget it.
Wyoming
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/aac9f6ffceeba238
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