Joe Bageant

Boutique businesses for money laundering

Joe,

I have just read your essay Dead Man Shopping. Your writing simply dazzles. I wish you could enjoy the temperate climes of California. I wonder why certain writers, like Joan Didion and John Steinbeck, ever left this state for New York. To me their talent remained here. The provincial is perhaps the most critical of his own character, like the reformed smoker.

Twenty years ago I lived in Northern California, the Eureka area, which was branded by the twin male occupations of logging and fishing. A third dynamic was taking hold, the male occupation of pot growing. Fishermen may carry guns, loggers probably not, pot growers always.

'America is run by gangsters,' he said

Hello Joe,

Greetings from Sydney, Australia. I heard your interview on our ABC radio a while back and finally bought your book, Deer Hunting with Jesus. Nearly finished it and I can't agree more with your sentiments.

I have been over to the USA four times and travelled around the back blocks a bit, including your area. I feel a sadness for the average citizen there. They haven't got a clue as to what's going on. I feel the USA has become a giant military camp to protect world capitalism and the citizens are not aware they have been conscripted. I have also travelled around Asia a bit. I've had deeper conversations about world affairs with Indonesian fishermen, Thai taxi drivers and even Tibetan peasants in far western China than I could get out many of the "middle class, educated" people I have met in the USA.

Australian labor unions reverse a trend

Hi Joe,

As I was reading your Deer Hunting with Jesus over Christmas I was reminded of a joke map of the US that appeared on the internet after Dubya was elected the first time. The blue areas, strips and pockets on the East and West Coasts were labelled the "USA" while the large red area in between was labelled "Dumbfuckistan".

Your book really highlighted the disconnect between the middle class left in the US (and I suspect elsewhere in the world) and working class people. While the left seemed happy to be making jokes at their expense, the right was busy connecting, having the conversation and winning the support; and from what you say, they are still doing it.

The dismal trajectory of society and politics

Joe,

I think of myself as middle class -- but I can't really define it. I have a college education, and in politics I would be described by those who know me as a bleeding heart liberal. I'm 65 years old. I was sitting in a coffee shop in Seattle talking to a young man from Virginia who says he left the state twenty years ago to get an education and see the world, but is going back to see his 70 year old father who is not in good health.

Our conversation led into social issues. Not surprising since he is a social worker, and he told me about your book, Deer Hunting with Jesus.

I read it in one sitting and am already insisting that all of my friends read it so we can talk about it. I loved the book.

Belize just suits my Neanderthal tastes

Joe,

I often think of you being in Belize. As a Green I prickled a bit by your comments about Greens in the essay Nine Billion Little Feet. No doubt I and other Greens are trying to save the world (planet and humanity).

Canada, I expect, will be in another election soon. The Harper government wants a vote of confidence to perpetuate the war in Afghanistan. Condi Rice is managing that campaign. An election as remote from affairs of the heart as any endeavour can be! I participate simply because I don't know what else to do.

You have rightly pointed out there is much to do close at hand with the people I meet everyday when I ride the bus, sit in the town square, make my rounds as TV lady at a hospital. Shite! But I could write volumes about the corporatization of health care. Sick people/patients are a money maker for the company I work for. Don't laugh.

Why bother to sign Declaration of Defeat?

Hey Joe,

Seems like the revolution rhetoric puttered out, huh? Who has the energy for all that anyway? I offer this instead. All ya gotta do to join in, is sign on and quit trying. Actually, why bother to even sign on?

TO: Whomever is no longer concerned

FROM: Scott, president, founder, and only member of THE UNASSOCIATED ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN PAUPERS QUASI-REVOLUTIONARY QUITTERS CLUB

---

DECLARATION OF DEFEAT

I (your name goes here), having CONCLUDED, based on the undeniable reality that all American problems invariably become exponentially clusterfucked and are always forcefully contagious, and that the American dream is a tiresome, unrewarding bad trip, not worth the efforts or the casualties. Understanding that participation is complicity, resistance is futile. Having consumed all the mind-numbing propaganda that I can bare. Being duly aware that, I, by having neglected to contribute to the coffers of the winning campaigns can expect no favors and no mercy. Having zero interest in the present electoral outcomes, even for their circus-like entertainment value.

People are beaten down by hard work and fear

Hi Joe!

One of the main reasons I read Deer Hunting with Jesus was to find the answer to the question: Why do they vote Republican? Your book present several good answers.

Almost half the population is functionally illiterate. Doesn't know the difference between a patriotic song and politics. Only scans and barely understands the headlines. Listens to Rush everyday for news.

That is something liberals like me have trouble understanding. My parents made sure my brothers and I understood the value of a life of the mind. My parents bathed us in that belief. But a family that has none of that, well, you only know what you are presented with.

How do we put the Boomers out to pasture?

Hey there, Brother Joe.

I just wanted to drop you a line and add my name to the long list of readers coming from out here in God's Country saying, "Keep it up, Hombre." Anybody with recommendations from Studs Terkel and Sherman Alexie is worth checking out, I suppose. Especially when he's got the balls to nail a title like Deer Hunting with Jesus.

So, like others in the chorus, I wanted to let you know about my journey down the old hog trail. I'm pretty much true blue Missouri Mule. My one set of grandparents opened up a small town meat locker and ran it for 30 years before the place burned down. Kind of lucky for the fire, actually, as that was the only way they got to retire. The other set of grandparents transplanted into West Missouri for construction work, straight out of Cherokee Country, Oklahoma. That set has bloodlines in the James Gang, and my Grandpa had some coonhounds in the movie Where the Red Fern Grows. These genes sure make things interesting, but they're the kind that's more likely to result in prison time and DWIs than PhDs.