http://www.amazon.com/Deer-Hunting-With-Jesus-Bageant/product-reviews/1846271525/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt/175-1103216-9544329?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
"Deer Hunting with Jesus" is Joe Bageant's account of returning to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, after leaving many years prior. D.H.W.J. is a quick and easy read that notes several things many readers can relate to across the US. In addition to the attitudes Bageant observes, is one pertinent point: Bageant left, but the others in his hometown, stayed. Therein lies the issue.
In this book, there are many cultural elements of contemporary America. Bageant peppers this book with personal anecdotes, statistics, and polling data to aid his observations. The author is witty and makes the read enjoyable. This isn't about one man (the author) and one community (Winchester), but about many commonalities of the different regions of contemporary US society. Belief systems shaped by mainstream media, Dominionist Christian attitudes of superiority, and readily accepted Neo-Con foreign policy beliefs by those who work, live, and occupy bar stools at the "Royal."
At times there is a generic partisan theme that refers to "Democrats" and "Republicans," and as a non-partisan I didn't buy into it, mostly because both parties are more similar than different and only represent the PACs, Lobbies, and Special Interests. But the author is correct in the split-personality voting behavior by these people who support clearly, the party that is most harmful to their interests. Bageant aptly notes this strange phenomenon of the neglected working-class who vote against their economic well-being, and he notes the reasons why. Those of us that follow American political culture, are aware of the reasons for this.
The book also accurately focuses on the growing under-class of America: Not the under-class in the Inner Cities but the working class of the rural and semi-rural regions of the USA that have slipped down more than a few notches and are paying a significant price in a lack of health care, education, and gainful employment. These people are subtly (and oft-times not so subtly) aware that they actually are slipping down the economic ladder - but they don't know the reasons why.
While reading "Deer Hunting With Jesus" I (and I assume many readers) could picture many of the characters described by Bageant. This is because I know people like this in my hometown 3,000 miles to the west, of Winchester, VA.
Some of the attitudes and biographical anecdotes by the real-life characters in this book are that people sincerely believe that by following the "work hard" and "play by the rules" game they "deserve" a big house, new car, cookie-cutter 2-week vacation, and financial independence as they grow older. For millions of Americans, this not the case. And it isn't only about the working class, but the middle and upper-classes today.
The material reward from "working hard" is no longer the case for most in the US. This trend started in earnest in 1970. Bageant notes that his cohorts didn't figure this out. Why have so many people not recognized this trend? Possibly because this information is not often available in the Mainstream Media in the US. More likely, because people are not curious enough to get this information, which is readily available.
More biographical overviews from the author that seem very common in the US is noted here: "My people don't cite real facts. They recite what they have absorbed from the atmosphere. Theirs is an intellectual life consisting of things that sound right, a blend of modern folk wisdom cliche, talk radio and Christian radio babble" (Page 65).
As for the comments about these hometown folks: one need not be intellectual. Not at all. Bageant knows this. One only needs to be curious, in my opinion. It's certainly not necessary to be an "intellectual" to discuss certain topics of the world and current events over a cup of coffee or bottle of beer. But people should be able to critically think to the degree where they can recognize bias, weazel words, spin, over-simplification, and over-generalization. We all have our own biases and preferences, and many of our own opinions are not always essentially our own. We have to get our information from somewhere. However the point is, many people simply regurgitate what they hear and see (and occasionally read). Much of this info regurgitated are from soundbites. Many people cannot even paraphrase.
In sum, many people are dumb. Not to sound arrogant or condescending but this is the perception. This dumbness is not because of genetics, but because of mental laziness, and not seeking objective sources that go into at least some amount of depth. If people want to make rhetorical statements and debate people (and often be loud) they should do some research. Do some homework.
As for Winchester and other areas of the US, I generally, find people in urban areas to be more sophisticated than those in rural regions. Again, nothing to do with intelligence.
Here is another excerpt from this book that I often observe in my hometown:
"Getting a lousy education, then spending a lifetime pitted against your fellow worker in the gladiatorial theater of the free market economy does not make for optimist or open-mindedness.....It makes for a kind of bleak coarseness and inner degradation that allows working people to accept the American empire's wart without a blink" (page 71).
I have specifically witnessed this, and still do in the United States.
People think political situations can be resolved by violence.
"it is not uncommon to hear someone talk about the Middle Est or some Asian or European country 'gettin out of line' and 'needing to be put in its place.' .....people who believe we should bomb France (though I doubt many of them could find it on the map" (page 71).
One chapter notes Lynddie England and appropriately asked how did her and people like her come to (falsely) define the American national ethos?
A fair question.
Written in 2007, DHWJ notes many of the elements that were issues in the 2008 National election that came a year after the publishing this book.
Health care, Abu Grahib, Oil dependency, Sub-prime mortgage industry and the racket of mortgage loans, CDOs, Neo-Conservatism, and the Mainstream Media. The religious influence of Reconstructionist, Dominionist, and Fundamentalist Christian elements that permeate attitudes (more than behavior).
But it's not mostly about about the town of Winchester, concepts, or "things." The most notable element is, the people --> Their attitudes and beliefs.
Chapters: Put in this review because of their pithy and self-explanatory titles.
1. American Serfs
2. Republicans by Default
3. The Deep-Fried, Double Wide Lifestyle
4. Valley of the Sun
5. The Covert Kingdom
6. The Ballad of Lynddie England
7. An Authorized Place to Die
8. American Hologram
"Deer Hunting with Jesus" is a great book by by Joe Bageant.
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