What makes a people a people?

[L Verge]

I have never been quite sure how the 1860s' Confederation of Southern states thought that it would be an improvement over the 1770s' Articles of Confederation that failed after the Revolution. The immediate plunging into war unified the South upon secession, but what would they have done in a time of "peace?"

The economic ties between North and South remained throughout the war -- cotton exchange, black market, etc. Those are pretty strong ties to break and live independently; just ask the young folk who can't find jobs right now and are back living with their parents. Nearly two hundred years of commonality is hard to walk away from, and I wonder if the hot-heads on both sides had just shut up if things could have been different.

Personally, right now, I could live without microphone grabbers on both sides of our society that tend to stir up more trouble than they give help. Our mass media makes it even worse, but I bet there were plenty of ordinary people in 1860 who were being shoved into positions that they really were uncomfortable with. The test of our society is whether or not we overcome the bad points and remain unified to at least some degree.