It started with how the theft and appropriation of land in the colonies was sold to colonizers as a form of freedom and self-actualization. Regional industries all had associated imagery which associated masculinity and freedom with rugged labor which made use of the land. Think pelters, log cabins, homesteaders, family-owned plantations, and later on, prospecting. At each step, the imagery of rugged men conquering the open wilds to secure their own self-made destiny was used to cover up what was really happening: class liquidity made possible through enslavement, genocide, and mass theft.

This was prominent even after this sentiment was used to convince men to go participate in the world wars. The Napoleonic romanticization of the bayonet the charge being blown away by the realities of modern mortar fire and trench warfare made no difference. Or at least, by the time the post-war period was cemented in our minds as a form of American theology in the 80’s, this idea of freedom and masculinity involving the conquering of nature was again prominent. I think a lot about how Mr. Wilson’s garden is portrayed in the 1990’s Dennis the Menace movie. Mr. Wilson is an asshole who’s obsessed with his garden at the expense of all else, but his entitlement to control his own lawn down to the very last flower is portrayed as sympathetic and valid.