Something I'd love to hear your thoughts on is what the Texan ethos consists of. I have run into people who think there is none, and I disagree (and at least on a completely practical basis, we have to say that either the nature and quality of new development is going to change the character of life in Texas, or we ought to develop some robust idea of the character of life in Texas and try to have *it* affect the new development instead, before the reverse process dominates), but the more articulate opinions I hear, the better I'll be able to understand the whole thing, and so I'm circulating the question here after asking trolleygirl.

thanks, Neil

Not to set the tone at all, but just as a side issue related to our concerns in this discussion, I have regularly enough over time been told that Texas is not part of the South. Confirming or denying this is not my interest, but I think that it raises something we do have to consider in considering Texanness -
I'll use San Antonio because it's home of the longsuffering Institute of Texan Cultures at the Hemisfair Park...
San Antonio can be thought of as a place where we find not simply Texan culture, unless we are going to define it carefully and intricately, but where we find meeting, in descending order, Texan ethos, Tejano ethos, plain ol' lower-class (that's who's excluded from the terrible socioeconomic structure in Mexico and emigrates from there) Mexican worldview and customs, Great American Southwest vestiges, and a little Hill Country European heritage remaining. How do we figure out how to distinguish what the Texan ethos is that should be acted from?