Hi Joe,
I ran across a note about your book Deer Hunting with Jesus on The Oil Drum web site and I've read some of the stuff from your site. I've had somewhat similar experiences, having grown up in Atlanta, then moving to California for 10 years and returning to Atlanta back to my parents' house. I was in northern California during the late 1960's and witnessed much of the radical thinking of the times. After my parents passed away, I moved to western North Carolina, thinking I would build a solar house and "escape" from the mess in the Big City.
I found myself right in the middle of the Southern white country small town situation you describe. The county (Ashe) I landed in was said to be the second poorest in North Carolina at the time, but has since seen a boomlet in second homes and in-migration of retirement age folks (including me). There was a furniture factory in the middle of town, but it closed. We've got the Super WalMart and the new Lowe's home store and lots of places that cater to the tourists that want to go to the mountains in summer. There's a new ski resort development going in within sight of my lot, being built by the owner of the Miami Dolphins. Yet, there are cows in the pasture next to my lot and deer running around at night.
The old time residents have been farming around here since the Revolution and the grave stones show where those folks ended up. The local radio station still has a Sunday morning Old Time Christian service, where Bluegrass music is a regular feature. There are lots of events at the various churches and regular revivals. Try to talk to these folks about Evolution and the age of the Earth being measured at 4.55 billion years and they think you are nuts.
What really scares me about the situation is that the local folks have a world view that's little different from the Taliban or the other fundamentalist Muslim believers. They will be especially hard hit as the price of gasoline continues to rise, which we can expect to happen once Peak Oil production becomes a reality.
Lots of these folks have been in the Army and are associated with various right wing militia groups. When push comes to shove, they have guns and may think it's necessary to defend their world view just as the "Islamists" are trying to do.
I will probably buy a copy of your book and I hope you sell lots of them. Keep up the good writing. It is to be hoped that your skills will help break through the mess we are caught in. Watch out for the alcohol, though, it will mess you up.
Eric
North Carolina
------
Dear Eric,
I do not kid myself that my book will change hearts and minds among my people. They do not read and buy such books. Those to whom I have given copies are rather mystified by it, or misinterpret it entirely. Such is the state of literacy in America.
I do hope however that it will help explain to concerned liberal Americans how these people became the way they are, and that it will encourage progressive Americans of good will to help set about changing those aspects of our country that feed upon and profit from the uninformed darkness of the millions.
In art and labor,
Joe
PS: The alcohol will "mess you up." Well of course! That's why I drink it! Seriously though, booze is sort of a stage prop for the most part. Its political incorrectness lets the reader know we are not adhering to the sanctified liberal line.
