Deep Dive Into the Mitford-Verse

[mallorys_camera]

The quaint & scenic Hudson Valley is on a Winter Storm Watch. BIG snow event expected.

The timing of the BIG snow event is a tad confusing, though. The advisory was issued yesterday, but the snow is forecast to hit tomorrow afternoon.

Nonetheless, it was bleak & grey when I woke up this morning, & it smelled like snow. (Yes, the world has a very distinct scent when it’s gonna snow.) I stocked up on provisions at the Upscale Supermarket in Middletown and then drove by the Y, but it was a typical Saturday morning: too many people, too few machines. No gym for me today!

###

After I read Unity’s Hitler diaries yesterday, I did a deep dive into the Mitford-verse, and found this little gem, which I’d never stumbled across before.

Watch on YouTube

Then I tried to analyze just what it is about the Mitford sisters that makes them so meaningful to me.

Much of it has to do with their extraordinary childhood, described in Decca’s Hons and Rebels and Nancy’s The Pursuit of Love.

If it was taking place today, the Mitfords’ childhood would be viewed as highly traumatic.

Their father, Lord Redesdale, was a xenophobic bully who used to organize “child hunts” (modeled after fox hunts), going after the girls with real bloodhounds who howled and nipped & bit. Their father refused to let any of the girls—except for (oddly enough) Unity—go to school because he didn’t want them to develop thick calves from playing field hockey. He was verbally abusive, and despite his title, the children grew up in poverty & neglect.

But it would never have occurred to the Mitford girls to see themselves as victims.

I don’t know how they responded to it all as children, but as adults, they viewed it as hilarious.
And that’s what saved them.

Humor lends one resilience.

Resilience is sadly lacking in contemporary culture. But, of course, it is one of the qualities I admire the most.

Obvs, one must take threats to a child’s physical welfare seriously. But beyond that, is it really better to intervene when your kid starts whining about something nonessential or to tell them, Toughen up! Figure out a way to deal with this yourself.

I don’t know.

But I do know that it seems to be getting harder & harder for young people to survive, and that's because they're not resilient.

Comments

Hitler youth

[bb_lurks_here_too]

Re: Unity. If you had a bad upbringing but you end up supporting a brutal dictator, you don't get to say that you "turned out OK". If that's "resilience" we don't need it.

Re: Hitler youth

[mallorys_camera]

Two out of six made bad choices; the other four did okay. So, two-thirds of the Mitfords did well.

Not sure what the score is for GenZ.

Re: Hitler youth

[smokingboot]

Hmm yes, but is that what we mean by resilience? Trying to imagine the non-resilient version of Unity Mitford, and I can't quite see anything. They got up after a childhood run by Bad Daddy and that does take resilience. Then maybe some sought a replacement. Not emotionally healthy and certainly not laudable, but is it fragile?

I feel a lot of dismay at the lack of resilience displayed by some Gen Zs. I find them
extremely conscientious and kind but maudlin and more herd-led than any generation since the 60s. Covid was not kind to them, but social media seems to be driving them mad in the search for fantasy lives.

Re: Hitler youth

[mallorys_camera]

Unity was probably the least resilient of the Mitford sisters. She allowed herself to get swept up into a cult of charisma—-she was only 21 when she wrote those Hitler diaries, after all—-& then when Germany & Britain went to war, she shot herself. (Hitler is so universally reviled these days that it's hard to understand that his domination was only part force; it was also part personal magnetism.)

Interestingly, Unity was also the only one of the Mitford Sisters to have absolutely no sense of humor.

Re: Hitler youth

[smokingboot]

Yes, when I re-read your post and these comments, I saw my own and thought hmm, mad in the search for fantasy lives? Maybe things haven't changed after all. Unity sounds like any desperate Gen-Zer looking for something or someone more. I wonder, if she had access to social media, would she just have frothed about him online for years? Would that release have stopped her becoming this highly efficient stalker/not quite lover?

In fairness, there were many older and wiser who fell as she did for Hitler. As you say, that magnetism... he had a promise for almost everyone. And almost everyone loved him.

Re: Hitler youth

[bb_lurks_here_too]

I have a skewed sample of "the youth". Since 2017, I've spent some considerable time around 20-somethings hiking 2000+ miles on the Appalachian Trail. Those kids can take a hit and keep on coming. And you, "Smoking" at least say "some", rather than a blanket evidence-free statement concerning an entire segment of the population.

I also have hung out with my longest lover's kid and his friends. Not a fragile 19-year old in the bunch. Thirsty for learning, and good at roughhousing.

Re: Hitler youth

[mallorys_camera]

She did say "some": I feel a lot of dismay at the lack of resilience displayed by some Gen Zs.

Here's a study: https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/trust-trend/trend-fall-2023.pdf

Note please, too, that this isn't an Internet bulletin board where people score points with each other. It's a place where my good friends talk to me and occasionally with each other. It's a conversation, in other words. Not a debate.

Re: Hitler youth

[bb_lurks_here_too]

That study makes interesting reading. I'm not going to put my cavils in here, but I do think the study sets out interesting data, such as it is, and does come up with fixes for the problems it claims to have uncovered. I can't argue with its proposition that exposure to Nature is good for people; my volunteer work is focused on helping get people out there.

So if you can get through 50-odd pages, it's definitely worth the time to check it out.

Re: Hitler youth

[mallorys_camera]

Pew generally does good studies. 😀

Reforming the criminal justice system

That's where Ichabod comes in. 😀

Re: Hitler youth

[smokingboot]

I'm in the UK, so perhaps the demographic is different. The Lick My Wounds generation seems at its loudest online. That may only be a few amplified voices, but it does feel endemic. Larkin wrote 'sexual intercourse began in 1963' but apparently trauma only turned up in the world around 1997. I blame Princess Diana ;-)

I can well believe that getting out, physically being with other people and participating in the world, as well as having enough time to think alone, helps create robust individuals with the capacity to find/build happiness. They sound inspiring!

Re: Hitler youth

[mallorys_camera]

The human brain is so-o-ooooo pliable! I suspect exercise is just as effective as SSRIs for treating most types of depression, but I suppose people who are deeply depressed lack the will to move.

[lethe1]

Thank you for that documentary! I watched it with interest.

Diana made me laugh by calling Nancy's description of the child hunt poetic licence, since "he only had one bloodhound, not four".

[mallorys_camera]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I was most intrigued to see Pam, who hardly ever gets written about. 😀