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A review by eososray
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
4.0
This was a very informative book, the author offers a glimpse into a world and culture I have little frame of reference for. While I can personally understand the religious moral view of the people she talked to and some of the super conservative views, as I grew up with and am surrounded by those opinions, I can't wrap my head around the lack of environmental clean up and regulation or how the people are willing to just live with the consequences. These are anathema to everyone in the area I live and I can't even imagine the hoopla that would exist should something like this occur.
I did come out of reading this with much better understanding of the American conservative right. The authors analogy about everyone cutting in line ahead of the lower class white family and how frustrated they are with feeling like everyone gets to the American dream before them (even the Brown Pelican) illustrated for me a piece of the puzzle I was missing.
The unconscious racism that still exists here was also eye opening for me, I like to think I'm enlightened and don't do or think like this but I'm sure I do. The fact that some of this racism is so blatant, at least to my politically correct brain, is curious. What is not considered racism there is definitely not acceptable where I am, I would get the most shocked looks and would more than likely be told off in no uncertain terms.
Democrats and their ideals are perceived to be a threat to a way of life and judgement against a moral code. This isn't new, how many people have I talked to who grew up in the 50s that think it was better back then?? It wasn't as rosy as they remember, there were massive global issues, lots of crime, plenty of moral degenerates, it was never Leave it to Beaver like. They just hid everything, and I don't think that was a good way to live.
To look at all of this from a different perspective and see what they see, whether I agree or not, was enlightening though. It has given me a better appreciation for what these poor states are up against, both in the populaces demands for immediate solutions and the big corporations that abuse the system. It's a tricky problem and it's going to be tough to fix, especially with the wish to deregulate rather than regulate that permeates the region.
I did come out of reading this with much better understanding of the American conservative right. The authors analogy about everyone cutting in line ahead of the lower class white family and how frustrated they are with feeling like everyone gets to the American dream before them (even the Brown Pelican) illustrated for me a piece of the puzzle I was missing.
The unconscious racism that still exists here was also eye opening for me, I like to think I'm enlightened and don't do or think like this but I'm sure I do. The fact that some of this racism is so blatant, at least to my politically correct brain, is curious. What is not considered racism there is definitely not acceptable where I am, I would get the most shocked looks and would more than likely be told off in no uncertain terms.
Democrats and their ideals are perceived to be a threat to a way of life and judgement against a moral code. This isn't new, how many people have I talked to who grew up in the 50s that think it was better back then?? It wasn't as rosy as they remember, there were massive global issues, lots of crime, plenty of moral degenerates, it was never Leave it to Beaver like. They just hid everything, and I don't think that was a good way to live.
To look at all of this from a different perspective and see what they see, whether I agree or not, was enlightening though. It has given me a better appreciation for what these poor states are up against, both in the populaces demands for immediate solutions and the big corporations that abuse the system. It's a tricky problem and it's going to be tough to fix, especially with the wish to deregulate rather than regulate that permeates the region.