Joe Bageant awaiting senility in his reclining rocker
with gun and bourbon. (Photo by Steve Lilibeck.)
This letter from a reader is in response to Joe's short essay "On Native Ground".
Joe,
You're old.
For those of us who aren't old -- yet -- roots are not a commodity that can be easily obtained. If we were to wake up tomorrow morning and find that a populist revolution had disposed Obama and put half of the federal government in prison for war crimes and treason and all of our elected leaders and judges were replaced by frothing populists and our economy was overhauled to serve the interests of the common person, we'd still have a hard time "settling down." Fluid labor movement is a great asset to both management and labor in a good economy (I grant that it’s only a strong asset to management, not labor, in our present economy). It is impossible to maintain that asset and make a society that encourages the establishment of roots in one place. A good chunk of the population will remain fluid no matter what.
What is gained by attempting to create a sense of locality linked to geography? We are defined by our consumption, and what we consumed is consumed everywhere, with rare exception. Actually, this is one of those weird situations where the exception proves the rule. The most immediate differences between the states I've lived in hasn't been dialect or social events, but instead the grocery stores available. It's been a long time since I saw an H.E.B., and if you see one of those, no one around you will know what a Pathmark is. Our regional differences are not merely bland, they are commercial.
All that being said, I can agree that a sense of locality is something we desperately need. That sense of "neighborness" is probably the only thing we've lost since the 50's that was actually a good thing. But creating a sense of community will not create a link to geography. And, frankly, it would be foolish to try to recall it. Skylines can and should change as our needs change. We can’t all be born in a cabin in a pristine forest, else, within a generation, there won’t be a cabin or a forest left. The article you wrote described people who knew each other well: if, God forbid, their town burned down tomorrow, their knowledge of each other would remain, and it would remain a beautiful thing.
The link to geography will never be what it was, Joe. Only old people will pass by their birthplaces and reflect. The rest of us were born in hospitals.
Jason
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Jason,
Wonderful letter!
As for being old, well by gosh and by golly I hadn't noticed that! I thought that geezer's face I shave in the mornings was somebody next door peeping into my bathroom.
Lessee, where to begin? Seems that scatological metaphors keep flooding into my head on this one.
"Fluid labor movement is a great asset to both management and labor in a good economy."
Well, the economy, good or bad, ain't my god and personally speaking, I do not want to be "labor fluid" pumped around like living human shit, flushed from one industrial workhouse to another, regardless of how good it is for Wall Street, Wal-Mart or anybody else.
"What is gained by attempting to create a sense of locality linked to geography?"
If you have a sense of locality, a sense of home and connection with a place, you are less likely to shit in your own nest, then run to the next spot. And right now Mother Earth has had about all the shit she is going to take off of us. And obviously she's reaching for the handle to flush us back into the pre-Cambrian slime from which we crawled.
"We are defined by our consumption."
Oh you poor dear! Where did you ever learn that? I suspect some business school is at work here. Or worse yet, a degree in economics. Ever feel around for a chip in your neck? If I were defined by what I consume I'd be a walking bottle of Jack Daniels with female pubic hair around the mouth of the jug.
"The most immediate differences between the states I've lived in hasn't been dialect or social events, but instead the grocery stores available."
Phew! What a deep and powerful observer of the world and life you are. When I recently traveled from Hollywood to Appalachian West Virginia, the first thing I said was, "Wow! Would you look at that! The fuckin grocery stores ain't the same!"
"But creating a sense of community will not create a link to geography."
Then it ain't a real human community, is it? A true community must be grounded in the earth in some respect. Calling something a community doesn't make it a community. Thirty thousand people jacking off together in cyberspace ain't a community, no matter what they say. They are what I would call "floaters," if you know what I mean.
"Skylines can and should change as our needs change."
I'm kinda for leaving the skyline fucking alone. I ain't seen the skyscraper or six-level overpass yet that looks as good as a tree or the prarie against the celestial dome. But then there's no accounting for taste.
"We can’t all be born in a cabin in a pristine forest, else, within a generation, there won’t be a cabin or a forest left. The rest of us were born in hospitals."
Well, I was born in a hospital too. But there ain't nothing wrong with leaving the trees alone and maybe spending a little time in a remote cabin once in a while to beat yer iPod addiction. Don't be afraid. I know an old Nam chopper pilot who'd airdrop you pizza and Jolt cola.
"Only old people will pass by their birthplaces and reflect."
What makes you think that reflection is strictly the domain of old people? If you wait until you are old to utilize reflection, you are gonna be in a world of shit long before you ever get old, believe me. (Like I said, scatological references seem unavoidable in dealing with these fecal excretions of an infant intellect.)
In all seriousness though, let me mention something here. Numerous researchers have found this: Young people place great value on logic and critical thinking. It's a genetic predisposition of the young, and probably has its roots in the infant upright hominid -- or some earlier primate learning that a branch is too far to make a leap for -- or that the big furry kitty with the two foot fangs will eat you. A survival thing. As we get older we gain more experience, and in the second half of life tend become more subjective, tend to place more value on actual experience. What works and what does not. The young pups see the old guys as calcified relics. The old guys see the young pups as overestimating the efficacy of their cranial pudding. Both are correct from the standpoint of their genetic life-stage triggers. But neither is "right" in any ultimate sense. Like I said, nature has her paw on the big flush lever, and I doubt she is listening to either one of us right now.
So pardon me. I've gotta go find a grave to reflect upon. Or a maybe bottle of Jack.
Still kickin,
Joe
