The Cowboy: Myth, Reality, or just Propaganda?

During the reign of George W. Bush, we heard a lot about "cowboys". Europeans called George Bush a cowboy, this means somebody who acts without following due procedure. At least that's how it was meant by the Europeans when applied to W. and his war in Iraq.

The fact is that the symbolism of Cowboys and the Wild West is everywhere in America today, and somewhat in Canada too (mainly in Alberta). Particularly so in Texas, which considers itself as the heart of cowboy mythology. And particularly among the Republicans and Libertarians, which appeal to the cowboy myth. The cowboy myth penetrates every area of human endeavour including motorcycling by the way. The Harley Davidson subtly (or not so subtly) bases its marketing on American cowboy image.

The top two Cowboy characteristics that come to mind, a cowboy carries a gun and rides a horse. But there is much more to it than that in the cowboy's character and beliefs. The cowboy is self reliant, would never think of using welfare or unemployment insurance. The cowboy is free, and doesn't want any Government telling him what to do especially when it comes to choice of guns. The cowboy lives free in a lawless land, because his gun is the law. A cowboy is never a union worker, they work hard and get paid a fair wage by their bosses. Cowboys are not socialists, they are true free market capitalists. Cowboys never have to be unemployed, if you're a hard working cowboy you can always get a job. Cowboys don't need medical coverage, they mostly die from gunfights rather than cancer or heart attack. Cowboys eat meat, and they are not gay (until Brokeback Mountain anyway). Cowboys hide their money in their saddlebags and don't trust those newfangled bank institutions. Cowboys don't have mortgages or credit cards maxed out.

Cowboys don't have much edyumacation, but they more than make up for it with real world common sense. They don't talk much, and if they do talk, it's backed up with gunfire. Cowboys believe in God and in "An eye for an eye". Cowboys do not believe in Environmentalism and they do not "Recycle".

Cowboys drink whiskey and beer. They rarely walk anywhere, always ride. They are bachelors but they are attracted to women. They never accept handouts.

The reality of cowboys is quite different from the mythology. They did have unions for example. But I'm not here to rain on anyone's parade if they believe in cowboys and model their lives on it, well go for it.

But I personally would not trust a cowboy to run the financial system of the richest country in the world. Before too long, the entire financial system would be full of gamblers, cheats and drunken snake oil salesmen.

Still remembering Ron Paul's ideas for solving the economic crisis, and of course he is still from Texas. He was saying that to fix the economy, we need to go back to the time of America's maximum amount of wealth production, which was the latter part of the nineteenth century. Coincidentally, that was the golden age of cowboys. Ron Paul says that was the best example of a free society, the prices actually went down, and people were much richer. It was the opposite of a socialist fascist type of system.

Why don't we just call all the Republican and Libertarian economic theories "Cowboyism". Cowboyism is based on the myth of the cowboy. But even if the economy was great in the 1800's (which I kind of doubt, given all the crazy gold rushes of the time) I doubt whether that type of wishing for the past would work today.