Di: I live in England, and have done for the last thirty years. I'm not sure what you mean by your reference to 'real life'. Think of American Southerners as a distinct nation, or nationality, living [by force majeure] within the boundaries of a multi-national state.

Sort of like Welshmen within the UK. The situation being complicated by the fact that our geographical territory is shared with another nationality, namely, African-Americans. One hopes that over the centuries, these two nations will blend together via inter-marriage, a la Brazil [where there is a 'lost colony' of Confederates who have racially blended in completely, by the way]. But it hasn't happened yet.

Anyway, all this nationality stuff is moot, now. Southern nationhood is just something we old guys get sentimental about when we get together and are sitting around under our Confederate Flag, chemically altering our consciousness. The new world that's coming is going to be very different.