So Long Joe Bageant

I was saddened to learn last week that Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus, Rainbow Pie, and a whole bunch of critical essays, had passed away. His straight-forward critiques of unsustainable modernity (from a rural perspective) are priceless. His essays can be accessed in pdf form at:http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2011/04/joe-bageant-poet-redneck-revolutionary-rip.html. Of course, I say that his was a rural, working class perspective, but he was also critical of aspects or rural and working class culture. It can be a little bit confusing, I’ll admit. In fact, I was trying to explain to someone the other day about my own very short journey from rural conservative to a more radical point of view. I didn’t move gradually from far right to far left, however, through all the shades of the in-between. There is a space where far right actually meets far left going the other direction, where those who live off the land meet those who have returned (or wish they could return) to the land–all joined under a subscription to the Mother Earth News. In that space, it’s just a jump further to the right into communitarianism and new-agrarianism. Anyway, in my view, that’s kind of the space where I found Mr. Bageant’s work. Thanks, Joe, for some great reading. Rest in peace.