Having moved to the southeast United States some years ago, I had to become accustomed to the typical, cultural differences. One of the easier ones is the prolific use of the “Ya’ll” in the regional dialect. I’ve always just said “You all”, but in the southeast, “Ya’ll” is a verbless contraction. And until recently, I didn’t give it much further thought. After a few recent books I read on the subject of an increasingly contentious, aggressive, and outright violent world, I’ve begun to think that there is a more complex meaning to be derived from “Ya’ll”.
To be clear, I’m not saying that regional natives (or at least natives for the past few centuries) believe their use of it is more than the simple reference to more than one person. That’s what it’s used for. For my part, I believe it has the potential to be used for something larger and greater. One thing we’ve all seen, especially over the past decades, is the rapid shift to the “Me” culture. How does inflation affect me? How does a pandemic affect me? How does an error prone postal service affect me? The examples could go on infinitely.
Before someone tries to hit me over the head with their Freedom for Individualism bat, I’m not saying or even theorizing that individualism is a bad thing. It’s not. Being free to express oneself in appearance and thought is a good thing. Without it, we’d all be boring conversationalists. That said, just like anything else, individualism to excess is unhealthy. When our indvidualism leads to actions which infringe on someone else’s individualism, it is perceived as aggression.
Simply put, one person believe’s another indvidualism is wrong, dangerous, or just stupid. Thusly, they want it gone. Sadly, the entirety of mankind’s history is founded in aggression. Eons ago, a tribal group with spears and clubs invaded another tribal group to take their stuff. That tribal group fought to keep their stuff and often decided it was important to get rid of the rival tribe to thwart future aggression. Fast forwarding to the 21st century, tribes are now called countries, terrorist groups, and radical organizations are the tribes, using technological weaponry as their spears and clubs to achieve the same goal. Unfortunately, the efforts to attempt and control aren’t limited to the obvious aggression of war. They also include political, cultural, and economic aggression.
How do I think this relates back to “Ya’ll” and “Me Culture”? It’s simple. At the roots of each government or group exists individuals whose focus is on themselves. Yes, the charter says it’s about the group’s desire to achieve the goals they consider greater than anothers, but at the beginning and end of each day, it’s about how X and Y affect their life and help them get Z. It’s pure selfishness, and whether you believe in God, Allah, the Tao, Stoicism or anything (or even nothing) else, it’s wrong. This begs the question: If we believe in right, why do we support politicians, CEOs, or any other leader who does wrong to achieve what we believe to be right?
If the lack of sense depicted makes sense to you, then I believe there’s hope for you. This is where “Ya’ll” comes in to play. Yes, you are important. Your individualism matters. Your happiness matters. Your well being matters. You matter. These combined facts, though, also support the idea that every other person matters in all the same ways. Hence, “Ya’ll”.
To put it in current perspective, there’s nothing wrong with controlling immigration. Too many people and too few resources leads to shortages, decreased quality of life. Eventually, they’ll lead to aggression and violence between people. Instead of focusing on stopping people from coming, what if we examined why they’re immigrating? If a division of a smart corporation has an usually high turnover rate, they don’t just keeping hiring new people. They try to determine why people are leaving. The same should be applied to immigration. A potential solution is to determine why so many citizens of another country are willing to risk their lives to leave it.
This is where a “Ya’ll Culture” behooves everyone. Instead of spending billions to build a wall (which like any other security measure is only a deterrent, not a protective solution), why not spend a few million to help economically afflicted countries improve their societal quality of life. In turn, people who probably didn’t really want to leave in the first place would choose to stay. For the naysayers, I acknowledge this won’t work in countries with Communist regimes, ruthless dictators, etc., but for the most part people leave because they’re desperately poor, not because they don’t agree with the person or party in charge. In the end, less people want to immigrate to other countries, and those countries can focus their resources on improving the quality of life of its own citizens.
Yes, it’s simplistic, but is that really a bad thing? Simplicity is more understandable and easier to sustain than complexity. Again, though, the most basic element required is to think beyond micro “Me” and focus on the macro “Ya’ll”. To do the contrary will only accelerate the current cycle where a country if “Me’s” decide it’s perfectly acceptable to invade or even eradicate a another country of “You’s”. Unfortunately, in today’s technologically weaponized environment, that would be just the start of a globally impacting chain of events that will leave lions, tigers, and bears in charge. I hope it’s something “Ya’ll” can think about and, moreover, act upon.
Be well, ya’ll.