“I wonder,” [Ashley Wilkes] said. “I wonder not only what will become of us at Tara but what will become of everybody in the South.”
[Scarlett O’Hara] felt like snapping out abruptly: “To h*ll with everybody in the South! What about us?” but she remained silent because the tired feeling was back on her more strongly than ever.
Ashley wasn’t being any help at all. [Ashley continued] “In the end what will happen will be what has happened whenever a civilization breaks up. The people who have brains and courage come through and the ones who haven’t are winnowed out. At least, it has been interesting, if not comfortable, to witness a Gotterdammerung.”
“A what?”
“A dusk of the gods. Unfortunately, we Southerners did think we were gods.”
“For Heaven’s sake, Ashley Wilkes! Don’t stand there and talk nonsense at me when it’s us who are going to be winnowed out!” – Dialogue from the 1936 novel “Gone With the Wind