Joe Bageant

Cultural orphan of the class struggle

Hi Joe,

I just found your site a few weeks ago, computer-phobe and migraine sufferer that I am, but it seems like the more I read of you, the more I understand of myself. I'm from southern Illinois, born and raised, although I lived away from here for a short time.

Now I'm back living in Williamson county, in a town where our last major factory closed two years ago, and coal mining, what's left of it, is not much more than an irritating reminder of better times long gone. But I give the folks around here a lot of credit. They're always looking to get beyond the disappointments of the present, find ways to attract new business, and keep the population from decreasing. We've held at a steady 10,000 for a good thirty years, and although it might seem laughable to some, that's a victory in itself, considering everything we've lost, believe me.

One party has no heart, the other no spine

Joe,

Nothing has ever been fixed by conservatives, by definition. You and many others say the thing that I hear back all the time as a pox on both your houses. I see the same corruption as do you, but I don't think there is any support for the thesis that it is equal. There are looters and the looted. Saying that they are all equal will in fact make any solution impossible. All the twelve step programs and all homespun psychology agrees that a first step in any improvement is admitting to your wrongs. Not admitting that other people are wrong. That helps nothing except people continuing to make excuses for themselves and their conservative party.

There are myriad things wrong with the left but when the question is asked, "who might just barely conceivably listen to your views," there is no doubt in my mind. Democrats are screwed up but the problems are at least occasionally acknowledged and sometimes steps are taken to fix a few small areas around the edge. We elected a black president. We did all the Roosevelt stuff. We did voting rights. We did civil rights. Over the dead bodies of Republicans. Hopefully we are about to start to fix health care. Again over the dead bodies of Republicans.

Buddy, can you spare me a lek?

By Joe Bageant
Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico

People often comment on the intelligence and insight, the humor and sincerity, of the letters Ken and I receive on joebageant.com. And they say that the readers write as if we have known each other all our lives. I respond that yes, we have, but just did not know each other's names. And that many of us have been pretty much invisible and voiceless except to each other. And that, yes, my friends out there are indeed intelligent and clear eyed citizens. The American populace is often underestimated.

The fact is that America's finest minds and souls have no voice in this chilling new corporate state that has evolved. And if we are not allowed a voice, if our monolithic system ignores us, pretends we do not exist, then for all practical purposes we do not exist. Therefore it does not have to offer us political candidates representing our views or change laws to reflect them. Nevertheless, we are out there -- millions of us.

Shoot the fat guys, hang the smokers

(This is a long letter, with an even longer reply, but this reader has several excellent points, including the politicization of smoking and over-eating. -- Joe Bageant.)

Dear Joe,

I smoke cigarettes. This is my 49th or 50th year -- don't know which.

When this war on smokers really heated up, in the late 90's, I wrote to a friend in San Francisco, and asked her what was going on. "Is this some kind of grassroots movement?," I asked, in caps. She said she didn't know what it was, exactly, but that it couldn't be a grassroots deal, because they were very, very rich, and very powerful, and they had the full support of governments, corporations, and all of the media, without exception. They were getting lots of tax money, she said -- hundreds of millions -- and there were rumors that the big pharmaceutical companies were involved in funding and planning operations. "After all," she added: "They want to sell nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and a shitload of tranquilizers to the masses who quit as they get the piss pounded out of them." She said that a mutual friend had remarked that it was sure to become the largest social engineering project in the history of the world, and that, though he didn't smoke -- he found it frightening.

Working his ass off, eating sausage gravy

Hey there, Mr. Modelo,

I really don't follow your posts on a regular basis, although you're "bookmarked" on my browser.

Read your post "The Iron Cheer of Empire" tonight, and will comment with the following:

You gave up, huh? Moved to your perceived land of milk and honey, and now you've found it in yourself (between Modelos) to try and convince me that I'm a piece of shit for staying in the Motherland, trying to better myself in my company so I have a job next year, and the 15 years after that, while worrying my fucking head off every day about the economy, while you can walk down your alley and buy rooster sperm eggs, tacos and local produce, then stroll past the locals as they sit on their front porches each night and discuss with their friends how the made the right choice buying their wares that day.