Heh. I concede there are differences. A lot of art, from The Departed to John Horne Burns, references the Irish psychological inability to cope with disaster, as compared to, say, Latins, who have a bounce-back in their soul. Sometimes I think our tribe is the absolute worst at nurturing resentment. But then I think of the Serbs. ;-)

…and, to a lesser degree, the Pollocks, much of whose identity, understandably, is defined in fierce opposition to Germans and Russians. When I was engaged to a Polish woman, shacked-up on the East Coast and thinking about changing my life, her sister, at about the same time, married a Lithuanian dude. Now “Lithuanian” would have been fine with the family (after all, the two kingdoms used to be joined), but actually, said the elder ladies in the family, their eyes narrowing in suspicion, he was Russian. Needless to say, it didn’t go over well.

I was accepted, to my surprise. For one, my redneckness was seen as somewhat mitigated by an English father. Two, redneckness per se was not seen as a wholly bad thing, for (this is their words) “Pollocks are pretty much the rednecks of Europe.” Three, when I told my potential mother-in-law that my great-great grandfather was from Koenigsburg [true, but we have no idea what ethnicity he really was -- he spoke German and served in Bismarck's army, but self-identified as "black German"; my guess, considering his almond eyes and dark features, is that he was an ethnic Hungarian], well then I was seen as a long-lost Pollock myself.

I would TOTALLY marry that woman…

mikey

Probably true, HTML. I think of the “Scots-Irish” socio-genetic tribe as a seething mass of bullshit artists given to threats both verbal and physical. The “Irish” end of the axis tends to more screaming, and the “Scotch” end to more hitting.* How this differs from the stereotypical Italian/Soprano clan is, well, those of us within the matrix can *totally* tell the difference (/snark). Both Celts and Italians agree we’re quite different from the dense, icy, soul-smothering, non-verbal German/Scandinavian brand of toxic clannishness. But you’re right, it’s like the temperamental differences between terriers and schutzhunds — the range across both types is greater than the difference between them.

*Old joke: Why do Scottish dancers hold their hands up over their heads & Irish dancers hold their hands rigidly at their sides? Because the Scots can’t be trusted not to knife each other unless all hands are visibly weapon-free at all times, whereas whenever the Irish raise their hands past shoulder height they’re seized with an irresistable impulse to throw a brick.

mikey

Indeed, I hate that. It’s not milk! It’s juice! STFU with the soy milk already!

I know nothing about soybeans, but what I do know is that a) they don’t have teeth and b) they don’t have teats.

Ahead 30 miles, take Exit 7.

You remember that, right?

Also, cryptosporidium and pfiesteria.

Poopy: it’s not always a joke.

Corporatism being the opposite of living things, agribusiness might be the worst of both worlds. It certainly acts like it. The common theme of every farm needing at least one adult day job can be laid at their door.

Hey. That Monsanto article was interesting. Thanks for that.

Not to get all “RedState” and tinfoil hat brigade here, but… Any chance Mons is holding stuff back to drive up demand for genetically modified crops? As in, “we don’t have any standard Soy Beans, but we do have some GMF…”

I spent my 13th summer working on an uncle’s dairy farm in MI, it gives you a great appreciation for what farmers have to deal with.

I also know very little about soybeans. But I do know they don’t have teeth.
I am more interested to find out how you milk the little fuckers.

This might be true, but more importantly it’s interesting, which is why I remember it.
Also, Dueling Banjos.

I dunno if the phenomenon has anything to do with ethnicity or culture. Certainly the Romans had their share of families like the Kennedys — or the stereotypical Southern Gothic clan. And the royal families of Europe (almost totally German in origin) are as famous for their uneven qualities as for their inbreeding. Maybe cousin-fucking is the problem. Or not. I tend to think it’s a human nature problem, and everyone is more or less susceptible.

Well, there’s things money can’t fix either. Remember JFK’s sister Rosemary, the sorry human “reason” behind Eunice Shriver’s support of the Special Olympics? My own personal experience is urban, not rural, but there seems to be something in the “Scots Irish heritage”, such as it is… some weird combination of genes and misguided parenting, such as will happen when your family story is so peculiar that it’s simpler to marry cousins than to try and explain stuff to outsiders. As HSThompson once put it, “You keep breeding fast but crazy to crazy but fast, and you end up with *very* fast and *very* crazy.” Or, in Kennedy terms, with a litter sib group containing one genuine human Phenomenon, someone gifted with Glamour in the original Celtic sense of that word, plus one hopelessly “blessed” Epic Fail, and a range between those two of variously gifted-or-not-so-much sibs with a fatal prediliction for chemical mood alterants.

Michael Pollan talks a bit about how Industrial Ag sets the terms for all farmers. But that’s a ticket to hell, and the US is so badly positioned to adapt.