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FranzJoseph:
(You have to go to the article to read it, C&P is disabled. -- FJ.)

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/editorials/signs_Redneckville.php

For starters, I live in Redneckville.

I work in Redneckville; the wife and I even got married in Redneckville (by the mayor!)

And all my whole family comes from Redneckville... in rural Pennsylvania too.  The lived above Johnstown before, during, and after the famous flood.  Their son got to see the Johnstown of now.  The place without hope or jobs, the ghetto in the hills, the place where living in a cheap tin trailer is a step up.

That Redneckville.

I see the other ones, like where I am now in Ohio.  This place was/is an oddity.  Republicans own everything except the people who work for a living, which should produce the creative tension or better yet some of Hesiod's good strife.  But it never does.  In the years 1968-72, when I was in the military, the working stiffs here all came out for George Wallace.  It wasn't really all about the race thing either.  They thought Wallace was for the working guy.  Wrong, the fellows I was in with included quite a few Alabamans who set me straight on George:  "He's a populist for millionaires, buddy!" is how they put it.  Likely true.  Even since, brighter bulbs then I politically have noted that if George Wallace had become president in 1968, we'd have gotten Reagan a dozen years ahead of time.

Which brings me to my point:  How do you leave Redneckville?

No joke.  If the Third World and the New Age are basically states of mind, then dammit, Redneckville's a state of mind too.  So how do I get out?  The wife deserves better.  Half the people here do too.  But the place comes with a Sartre-ish No Exit, a point hard to get across to non-Redneckvillers.

America might even make sense to people if you explain there's no way outta Redneckville.

The wife and I for instance.  Excuse the autobiography but it's impossible to explain without descending to the personal; while personal may not always be political, it more and more is since the coming of GWB.

Anyway the wife and I are in our mid-fifties and we're the ones who live in town.  She and I have both spent our lives "doing work Americans won't do" as George puts it.  I've done steel, coal, iron, construction, boiler, the usual industrial stuff.  She's done a bit more variety; a lot of "service" work if by that we mean cashiering but she's been in the soup where I have too:  She once worked a pump factory that had the worst safety record in the Western Reserve, when a class action suit was threatened, the factory decamped to its current location south of the Rio Grande.

Onward and downward:  We've each been downsized enough that we both know how the captain on the Titanic felt, except going to the bottom with the ship is not an option for us.  There is no place for folk like us but no exit either.  Odd thoughts have entertained us as the lights grow dimmer.  Plenty of empty land in Patagonia, can a middle aged American couple start over and homestead next to the penguins?  Not much left here!

Get to the point, buster.

Okay, it's actually simple.  It hurts, but it's us you can see any day in Redneckville.  Oh, no we haven't gone "right" yet (or "left" or "up" but "down", I think I'm making clear, is wide open).  Still aside from the politics, we know who you mean.  More importantly, we know why they're there.

It's hard to resist becoming a fascist and waving the flag.  What a release it must give the average Redneckvilleirs.  Or how about joining the congregation next door:  The one that marches with the kids to protest abortion now and then, or hands out those oh-so-popular God Hates Fags handouts.  When you can do that, you can blow off steam.  A former boilerman I can tell you it feels good to do that, and the system is thankful for your blowoff.  It's healthy.

Steffi and I, on the other hand, are thinking creatures in Redneckville so these small acts of regime-approved rebellion are not open to us.  Indeed the regime would never admit it "approves" of any of this, please note I'm talking about what the regime says it disapproves of but, in their underhanded but obvious way, do everything they can to make happen as often as they can.

Steffi sometimes looks at the dilapidated ruin of our once decent, unpretentious town and wonders why it's come to this.  Not much of a liberal, I can still ruminate that the bill for Faluja must be paid by someone.  Perhaps the former lower middle class, the old industrial backbone, reduced to squalor is one of the ways the universe balances the bad America has done.   I don't really know.

But I know there's no way out of Redneckville.  It's a state of mind and it's everywhere in America now.  It's where they believe Fox news and CNN and hope Bush's legions kill more ragheads if only to keep gas prices reasonable for a few more weeks, even months maybe.  These are the places that succumbed to yesterday because today got too complicated.  The fascists you see are really tired people.  It's hard work to believe.  It's difficult labor to keep a bowling team chattering the right sort of hogwash for the regime.

Spare a thought for thinking souls in Redneckville once in awhile.  Our downsized lives make a perfect match for our totally futile attempts to wake our fellows up.  There's light on, of a sort.  Don't totally count us out.  We try.  We're here.  There's a reason for that even if we can't figure out what it is.

ellie mae:
This piece indadvertently reveals a big problem with North American society.  Unfortunately, the bigoted know-nothing that most deserves condemnation is the author of the piece.  

Let's look at what he says.  He spent 'a few hours' skiing and sitting in a lodge, and based on that he claims to have 'a 90% chance of being accurate on my assessments' of the other people sitting in the lodge.  How?  There was no indication that he even conversed with any of these people.  Instead, his assessments seem to be soley based on appearance ('too much cheap makeup', 'wearing patriotic tee shirts').  From this scanty evidence, he asserts that these people are:
'born again' (do they have halos?)
'kool-aid brainwashed' (what kind of kool-aid is this?)
'average to below average intelligence' (he can tell this from their brand of makeup?)
'sports fanatic' (shouldn't they be home watching the Olympics then?)
'gun toting' (in the restaurant?)
'self righteous' (compared to whom?)
'hyper masculinized guys' (note that the women don't even exist to him except as wearers of cheap makeup)

What was the point of this shallow, knee-jerk social hatred?  Apparently, these 'losers' are to blame for the rise of corporate fascism, as occurred in Hitler's Germany.  How?  It is likely that some of these people voted for Bush, however it is at least as likely that they didn't -- most Americans either voted against or didn't vote at all.  At any rate, as in Hitler's Germany, the voters don't decide things -- money talks, and blue-collar rural people don't have much of a voice.  It's not the women with cheap makeup you need to worry about -- it's the ones in expensive suits, carrying briefcases, that are selling out your country.

j0da:
Messages like "it's THEIR fault" won't do much good, as well as dividing society even more with "enlightened" and "dumbed" tags. EVERY one of us is responsible for actual situation in some way and apart from taking some responsibility we should work to bring people closer, discuss and create new, positive and workable agreements and solutions.

Should I for example blame my grandpa, who was supporting communism, because the war and the germans kicked the -shite- out of common people, because he had to work damn hard just to make a living, because he never had a chance to finish primary school, not mentioning learning how things really work in the world? He was in the military, took part in rebuilding my country, worked almost whole his life at the steel works factory and finished in poverty, like almost every one man and woman of his generation. And what now, should I point my finger at him and other simple people and start shooting with epithets? Is it gonna change anything?

"Rob Kall is editor of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology." Quite a credentials, but nevertheless, shame on him.

But, I can take his article as a temporary emotional stumble. All of us stumble from time to time - let's not forget that. Let's unite, not divide.

scollon:
"EVERY one of us is responsible for actual situation in some way "

I don't believe  for one second, there is anything a normal citizen can do any more than your grandfather was able to. There are no such things as revolutions against a powerful state unless it's financed and organised from outside. The average person nowadays believes the complete nonsense they see on TV which so far fom reality there is no hope at all in my opinion, none.

Animal Farm by George Orwell perfectly describes human political nature (imo) even if something did change. Fraternity in a hierarchy is a lie and there are always hierarchies.

This is good too.


Won't Get Fooled Again (Townsend, The Who)

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And them idols that we worshiped will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Guest:
I went to college in Ohio, Kent State to be exact in the 80's. It was a time when the generational heros were Dirty Harry, Rambo and J.R. Ewing. Many of my friends actually believed they would be millionares by 30, the terms "Nuke 'Em", "Make my day" were cool, and if you were unemployed you were a lazy good for nothing. The people I knew were all Business and Science majors, many of them moving on to high tech jobs. Most of these kids had a habit of watching soap operas glamourizing the corruption of ultra wealthy families, and would dream of being their corrupt heros.

The few who questioned society, the country and life in general were "weird". These were not necessarily "nerds" although many of them had a different fashion sense than the mainstream. The "nerds" I knew in the sciences were ambitious and hardworking, but amoral. They were in it for the money, and most knew that the money was in defense research. "Those who can't do, teach" they said.

Very few of these people were from Redneckville. Most were middle class and upper middle class, and dreamed about climbing to the top and woe unto anyone getting in their way. "You do what it takes", they would say, "or get bowled over". From these friends and acquaintances I would always hear: "get with the program".

The more ambitious of these friends were the most amoral, and they did get jobs in high tech industries, law, medicine, research foundations and the white collar arena. As a rule these ambitious ones had contempt for anything but the bottom line, and the quickest way to make as many bucks as possible in the shortest amount of time.

In the later years of my extended college career (extended because I had to make ends meet while going to school), I ended up dropping most of these pals and hanging out with the more thoughtful "losers". Some of these were from Redneckville, although all in all they were from varied backgrounds.

I can understand being weighted by fate and circumstance into ideology and cultural attitude, especially under perpetually defeating conditions. I wonder what my upper middle class friends would have done in Redneckville? Yet they weren't from Redneckville. They weren't stuck anywhere, and those that did not already have connections, made connections. "It's not what you know, it's who you know", was another of their fond universal truisms.

These people are now in their 40's, and as they rose in their respective careers, the more thoughtful or otherwise "maladaptive" fell. It is true that the elite cannot really do much without support. But who is their greatest support? Rednecks, and their symbolic acts and loud collective voice, or amoral "educated" elite wannabe's in science, economics, advertising, law, medicine, mainstream journalism and other positions supporting the elitist infrastructure?

The difference between Redneckville and the real middle class elitist supporters, is the direction of social gravity. Those of Redneckville as FranzJoseph so eloquently described are pushed down by the gravity of their condition, while the more "educated", when they show the proper "chutzpah" are pushed upward to join the heavenly ranks of the priveliged.

These latter ones had wings on their heels and opportunities, and some of them did manage to lift themselves from lowly positions (very few). These had the ability to make a difference in their chosen fields, yet most did not even try. Instead they dover right in to be the best darned dog for the man, working hard and often creatively to help bring the country and the world to where it is today.  Alot of them even pass by Redneckville and make fun of the "natives".

It's true that blaming is not a constructive thing, and everyone has to look in the mirror before they look anywhere else. However, if we do want to look for a group of people who worked ruthlessly hard to support the elitists, I do not think it is in the direction of Redneckville.

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