Had a good conversation at a photography event yesterday with a nice young photographer from Budapest who's doing a residency here in NC. We talked about Orban, Putin, Soros, Trump, the things that came naturally. Somewhere in there he started talking about the disquiet of the modern Europeans, who feel like they don't make anything since it all comes from China and therefore what are they? Salespeople? Their lack of rootedness in the land.
I don't really feel that so much. Perhaps that's because America was first and almost supposed to be about an idea and an ideal, however imperfectly attained. Plus the fact that we remain an agricultural powerhouse, though that's not really me. North Carolina used to be all tobacco, leavened with textiles and furniture, now all three have been eviscerated. This undoubtedly makes it hard for rural and manufacturing populations that have gotten used to and dependent on specific employers -- a recently closed paper mill in Canton, NC comes to mind.
But that doesn't mean our identity needs to be rooted in tobacco, textiles, what have you. For me by now North Carolina's identity is best based in the ideals put forth by Dean Smith, Bill Friday and their epigones. I guess that's where and when I'm from. Universities as engines of social change and economic adaptability, the most impressive product of which is, ironically, the flowering of NC State over my lifetime. I realize that I went off to Ivy League schools and all but in the end that was largely about getting away from my dad and seeing the world a little. I appreciate the virtues of this place.
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