Procrastadabbler

I’m working very hard to keep my mind open to multiple views of the world. I have my ideology, but I don’t want to become isolated within it. So, I force myself to read things that appear contrary to my belief system.

To that end, I just finished reading Carolyn Chute’s novel The School on Heart’s Content Road.” Chute is a gun-toting, Maine miltia-member, hates schools, hates government, hates corporations. Into self-sufficiency. In her “interview” which she wrote herself, she is a self-proclaimed “patriot” and “red-neck” in which she explains that the term red-neck comes from the red kerchiefs miners in the south would wear in defiance of the merger of government and industry which increased the exploitation of the worker. The term redneck is a badge of honor that ties a person to the working class. I always thought it was the red neck outdoor laborers such as farmers get from working in the sun all day. The intent is the same – the moniker redneck ties one to the laborer or working person.

There’s a lot of polemics in her book. The story itself is kind of thin. It’s actually a post-modern book (although I suspect she would hate having that title slapped on her work).

But what’ striking is that her right wing (she says she’s no wing) polemics is actually not all that different from left wing polemics. Distrust of government, distrust of industry, concern with human rights and humanity. She believes that schools are instruments of domestication. She’s not arguing anything new there. The left wingers have been arguing the same thing. She’s a proponent of homeschooling for that reason.

Her call is for self-sufficiency in all areas. Food production, alternative energy, etc.

At the most basic level, there is much that I agree with that Chute says, but there is fundamentally something wrong too. There is a tribalism underlying her belief system. She says so even in her “interview.” But her tribalism is also one of separatism. In order to live as she proposes, people must break into small groups. And when that happens, mistrust arises.

Is it possible to have small, self-sufficient groups that are still globally connected?

In the end, I’m distrustful of ideologies, my own included.