tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post1431039443117601875..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: The Buffalo Creek Flood, Appalachian Stereotypes, and American PoliticsJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-17608742790480658362021-02-16T09:40:19.565-05:002021-02-16T09:40:19.565-05:00Thanks to both of you. I am genuinely perplexed ab...Thanks to both of you. I am genuinely perplexed about both the actual situation in southern West Virginia and the question of how academics ought to write about it. These days sociologists and anthropologists see themselves as advocates for poor communities more than anything else. I understand why, but I wonder if that leads to ignoring important questions. Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-36946600783863036932021-02-16T09:28:05.361-05:002021-02-16T09:28:05.361-05:00I guess I would add that I don't mean that obs...I guess I would add that I don't mean that observers should abandon judgment. I think there's a strange alchemy whereby judging someone else as bad, or having bad beliefs, shows a kind of respect, whereas judging someone else to be a fool does not.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14456987412710878404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-76323277629195883162021-02-16T09:19:11.304-05:002021-02-16T09:19:11.304-05:00@Verloren
Very nice post. Love Stan Rogers!
@Jo...@Verloren<br /><br />Very nice post. Love Stan Rogers!<br /><br />@John<br /><br />Ugh, that Kai Erikson book sounds awful. "In true Appalachian fashion" amounts to another episode of Rorty's socially-accepted sadism. It's a smug faculty-lounge quip, not scholarship.<br /><br />No surprise I'm not a fan of "why don't you just quit?" approaches, whether they're directed toward Hollywood actors or Appalachian coal miners. To me, that sort of rationalism is beside the point, including when practiced by liberals on right-wing populations. I managed to get through about 10 minutes of "Strangers in Their Own Land" before I had to, well, quit.<br /><br />Populations do have cultures and tendencies, and some of them can be quite puzzling to academic observers. But it's important for academics to always at least try for the approach of ignorance seeking understanding.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14456987412710878404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-38550061139717293982021-02-16T02:20:00.458-05:002021-02-16T02:20:00.458-05:00"What are we to make of that? Are they foolis...<i>"What are we to make of that? Are they foolish? Or are we foolish for wondering why people would want to maintain their parents' way of life?"</i><br /><br />You mention Maine as not having the same sort of reputation that Appalachia does, but right next door you have the Maritimes of Canada, and they DO have that sort reputation, or one similar to it at least.<br /><br />Consider also the classic Stan Rogers song, "The Idiot", which is sung from the point of view of a Maritimer who has left their beloved home and all they know to seek work at a refinery in western Alberta. It inverts the question of "why don't they leave", because it provides an answer for why someone -would- leave: pride.<br /><br />~~~<br /><br /><i>I often take these night shift walks<br />When the foreman’s not around<br />I turn my back on the cooling stacks<br />And make for open ground<br />Far out beyond the tank-farm fence<br />Where the gas flare makes no sound<br />I forget the stink and I always think<br />Back to that Eastern town<br /><br />I remember back six years ago<br />This western life I chose<br />And every day the news would say<br />Some factory’s going to close<br />Well, I could have stayed to take the dole<br />But I’m not one of those<br />I take nothing free, and that makes me<br />An idiot, I suppose<br /><br /><br />So I bid farewell to the Eastern town<br />I never more will see<br />But work I must so I eat this dust<br />And breathe refinery<br />Oh I miss the green and the woods and streams<br />And I don’t like cowboy clothes<br />But I like being free and that makes me<br />An idiot, I suppose<br /><br /><br />So come all you fine young fellows<br />Who’ve been beaten to the ground<br />This western life’s no paradise<br />But it’s better than lying down<br />Oh the streets aren’t clean, and there’s nothing green<br />And the hills are dirty brown<br />But the government dole will rot your soul<br />Back there in your home town<br /><br />So bid farewell to the Eastern town<br />You never more will see<br />There’s self-respect and a steady cheque<br />In this refinery<br />You will miss the green and the woods and streams<br />And the dust will fill your nose<br />But you’ll be free, and just like me<br />An idiot, I suppose</i><br /><br />~~~<br /><br />There are people in this world who simply refuse assistance from others - they view it as shameful to ever "be weak" and need help, and would rather move away from everything they love to go live in a place they hate working an awful job, than to accept anything even resembling charity. Even when the government offers them financial help to allow them to stay, they would rather leave than "accept handouts".<br /><br />And I think there's a related sort of pride at work in Appalachia - a stubborn insistence for dying upon their chosen hill (literally), because to do otherwise would be to "be weak" and need help.<br /><br />The Maritimes saw people leaving because the dominant fishing and timber industries there collapsed more or less utterly, and even if they wanted to stay, there would be no work for them, and they'd have to live off government assistance. But in Appalachia, there <i>are</i> still jobs - they're awful, miserable jobs that keep families locked in poverty and exploitation, but they <i>are</i> jobs. And so people stay to work those jobs, even when the government offers them financial assistance to move elsewhere with better prospects - because they would rather <i>stay</i> than accept handouts.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com