Last
week I went on a mission trip with the Catholic Student Union to Boston. Boston
politics being very different from that of the South, I could not help but
think of the political geography of the area. In our class we learned of the
different political cultures including Individualistic, Moralistic, and
Traditional. The Moralistic or “Yankee” culture of the Northeast is the spirit
of everyone working together to solve a problem and everyone should participate
in politics. This is in stark contrast to the Traditional culture of the South
where only the elites should participate. We had an entire class discussion on
who should participate in politics. Having never been this far North before I
tried to keep these themes in mind.
Looking at the geography of the city every house was
right next to each other and very old. I was told by those that live there,
that even though the houses are small and old; they are worth millions of
dollars because of how crazy the housing market is up there. All these people
living so close together, made me think of this Yankee culture of compromise.
One absolutely has to work with their neighbor to get anything done since they
live in such close quarters with each other. In the South everyone is spread
farther out so you guard yourself and your piece of land with a gun and you
make no compromises to get what you want. Limited government would apply to the
South too; because you are spread farther out you do not want others to tell
you what to do. This limited government should only be led by those elite in
society instead of everyone working together. Where I live in Pensacola, my
family lives on an acre of land. This is not as much land as some in the South
live on or how much land used to be available in the South but it is much more
than the narrow allies of Boston, where the houses go up instead of out. Of course
in the South there is the small town idea where everyone knows everyone but
that will not be discussed in this blog.
There was a very solid example of Moralistic culture at
one of the shelters we worked at, spooning soup out to people. This was a
homeless veteran’s shelter. However, this shelter’s goal was not simply to feed
these veterans who have served their country fearlessly. No, the shelter wanted
them off the streets and into jobs and had established programs to do so. In
fact Lieutenant Governor Murray has announced that he will end all Veterans’ homelessness
in the great commonwealth of Massachusetts by 2015. I do not know if this goal
is realistic but I do know that it is characteristic of a Moralistic almost
utopian society. They will help their fellow man and work together to make
society a better place. This is certainly not characteristic of a Traditional
political culture of elitists and definitely not Individualistic.
There also seemed to be more solar panels up North, especially,
on every light pole. I think this could also be Moralistic and utopian: working
together to make society and our world a better place. The trip was a time of
much spiritual growth but it was also good for me politically to get exposed to
a culture much different than the one I grew up in. I do not think I would want
to live there but it was a positive experience.
