Believing both the survival and the honor of their society to be at stake, the South pursued a course during the decade preceding the war that suggests a people driven by a destructive passion, a people possessed. The people of the South seem to have been, at that time, in thrall to some kind of evil spirit that had arisen out of their culture, their mentality, and their circumstances.
This matter of animating spirits is not easy to get a handle on. Not easy for me, and therefore doubtless not easy for readers who try to grasp what I'm trying to convey.
But I believe that it is in becoming attuned to that level that we are most likely both to be able to comprehend our present challenge and to meet it.
It is my intention now to explore this dimension more fully --with your help-- in coming posts.
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