When I first moved out here, people were trying to tell me about the rivalry between Cal and Stanford, both very fine academic institutions which support me in very different ways (but don’t think I don’t have a rooting interest). And I asked “Do you know anyone who’s been shot over Cal-Stanford? Divorced? No? I don’t think you take your football seriously. You see that flag that’s half Cal, half Stanford, and says “A HOUSE DIVIDED” on it? You know what that flag would say in Alabama? POLICE LINE, DO NOT CROSS.”
I thought about this in the wake of Alabama’s national title, and the hue and cry over Cam Newton, and the unabashed glee from my house at the travails of the athletic department at the Penitentiary University of Tennessee, and then looked a little wider, and had one of those shuddering realizations.
The Southern form of rivalry is one in which it is less important that you succeed than that your rival fail.
I don’t know whether this is something rooted in economic privation, although that would make sense. If you can’t make any headway getting up the hill, you may still wind up higher relative to your rival if they take a tumble and wind up beneath you. Easier to sit there and wish something on the bad guys than to get up there and do better yourself. Either way, this is something that has to be taken into serious consideration when examining the state of Southernization of national politics (which has happened, and don’t let anyone tell you different) – when everything hangs on demonizing the other, how much simpler to cut down the other than to raise yourself…
NB: I was at one point going to do a detailed breakdown of how the GOP nationalized campaign was a one-for-one recapitulation of the standard forms in Alabama from 1914-58, complete with Big Mules and Yankees and the class-for-racial alignment, but it is frankly too goddamn depressing to contemplate.
When I am not cowering in fear during the American college football season (qualifiers much?), I realized I have been known to fall into this same pit…sometimes regarding the team of your allegiance(sorry, but the ‘necks are more obnoxious than I can take and the bits I remember for LSU games seem really fun). Of course my favorite special snowflakes of all the hardcore scary fans are the ones that can’t find Tuscaloosa on a map (usually the same ones that legitimately think we live in South America-true story). *shudder*
We have a rivalry, but it’s not just sports. We like to tease each other when it comes to academics, too. Things like Nobel laureates and elements on the periodic table and Pulitzers, etc. But the thing that I think matters the most is that, for the most part, we keep it all in perspective. Yes, I take it very seriously to not wear red to a Cal game, and I take a weird sort of pride driving my car with my Cal decal through Stanfurd’s campus, but it’s all for fun. It’s more like how I would root for the USA for the Olympics. It’s important, but it’s not All There Is To Life. We have other things going on in our lives. We have other distractions. We have other recreational activities. We have jobs. (Okay, 90% of us do, right?) Heck, we have other sports. (Blue Tarp Girl will appreciate a hockey shout out here.) We understand that there are other things in life, too.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a visiting Aussie when I was trying to answer her questions about how High School football is such a big “cultural event” in some parts of the country. My answer essentially was summarized as “there isn’t much else to do in the middle of nowhere.” It was a little more complicated than that, but that was a main point. We were having this conversation while hiking in Yosemite National Park. Some stranger ahead of us chimed in and said that at first he was going to take offense at what I was saying, but when he listened to more of what I had to say and how I said it with respect and relatively objectively, he admitted I was right. He grew up somewhere in the midwest and moved to California as an adult and he understood the difference.
But going back to your point, you’re absolutely right. In the South, it’s much more important that the rival fails instead of you doing well. That is definitely a Bully Mentality. And it definitely shows a lack of self confidence and pride in your own work. And now it all makes so much more sense…
Last week at lunch I was having a conversation with a coworker / friend of mine. His wife, who is a very educated person of the medical profession, happens to hail from Bibb County and is a lifelong Bama fan. They had gone to Tuscaloosa the previous weekend to see a game, and the following conversation apparently occurred:
Friend: “You know, it would actually benefit Alabama if Auburn wins out until the Iron Bowl. Then, if Alabama wins, they look that much better going into an SEC Championship game.” #Note: this is obviously pre-LSU.#
Friend’s Wife: “No, we want Auburn to lose every week.”
Friend: “That seems shortsighted. I mean, they’re your rival, but it actually would benefit…”
Friend’s Wife: “You just don’t understand.”
These are people I actually like a lot. Dear God, please get me out of this place before I #re#acquire whatever I-tis this is…
I realized I have been known to fall into this same pit…sometimes regarding the team of your allegiance
…and you have what against Vanderbilt, exactly?
=)
(my connection to the Tide is like the herpes: stuck with it for life, but it only flares up on rare occasions and generally you’d rather not admit you have it…)