Anth Post 4

I read chapter twelve of Arlie Russell’s book, “Strangers in Their Own Land.” In this chapter, “The Cowboy: Stoicism,” Arlie was invited to a Sunday Lunch get together by Mike Tritico. It was hosted by Cappy and Brantley from the Pentecostal church. The rest of the invited members were from the local Baptist church. During the Sunday Lunch, a debate between Donny and Mike was planned. First, they debated the Lake Charles EDC leak in 1994, then briefly they talked about the protection of workers and the accepting of twenty thousand Syrian refugees proposed by Obama. Arlie mentions the Vidalia onion that stays at Cappy’s house on the dining room table they were sitting around. The onion is a warning, half serious and half joke, not to fight. One of the main points of the chapter was that the debate never became a fight. They always stayed civilized and communicated with each other.

During the debate, Donny made the argument that “…real people -not the government- should be telling us what is or isn’t risky.” Which he later clarified to mean the laws and regulations enforced by the government. He stated that “Once something is regulated it’s hard to un-regulate it. And so, year after year at first -it’s just a little at a time- but then after a while, it’s like it is now, hardened cement. Everything is regulated. We’re all stuck in cement… With its overload of regulations, the government is almost living our lives for us.” He believes we should not be told by government how to live. That we should be able to live our lives ourselves, choosing our own risks to take. For example, they shouldn’t be closing down a bridge because the clay it is built on may be unsafe due to an oil spill. He believes we should be told by a “real person,” and then we choose whether we want to take the risk or not. This belief of Donny’s is a belief I’ve held myself. Reading his argument only influenced it to become a little stronger. Before I read this chapter, I would have been okay with closing down a bridge. I don’t like the regulations that I see as pointless and controlling. But, in all seriousness, why can’t people be allowed to live their lives with their own risks. If they want to die on the bridge, so be it. We, if we are really a free people, should be allowed to do whatever we want so long as it doesn’t harm others.

This belief of regulations and allowing people to take their own risks leads straight into his second point, “We have to be able to take risks… To live in civilization, you’ve got to take risks.” He explains that almost all events, discoveries, and industries that led to our modern civilization were achieved with risks. His example was logging, it is a large part of our society, and it comes with risks. And if we were to focus on perfection, taking no risks, we would barely get anything done. This belief of his I must agree with on the smaller scale. For the reason that I myself have had to take risks to get things done. I mean, how would a guy ever walk up to a girl if he doesn’t want to take risks? (lol) But, on the larger scale, I disagree. Donny was arguing that we shouldn’t over-regulate industries, that the workers should be allowed to take risks. Risks like breathing in fumes in an oil industry. Or risks that a pipeline could break, which was the start of their debate, the Lake Charles EDC leak in 1994. This belief has influenced me to think more about industries and the risks involved. The ups and downs.

In the case that risks become reality and disaster happens, like the huge oil spills. We will just have to endure and continue. As Donny states, “I’m strong. You’re Strong. Mother Nature is strong. We can take it.” This kind of belief, however influential it may be to some fun men like myself (the “suck it up” mentality), is not very good in the long term. It has only influenced me to be even more scrutinizing towards the lack of care many industries have for the environment. Yes, mother nature will probably survive, but that doesn’t mean the lack of care isn’t going to catch up with us eventually.

These beliefs of Donny’s, Arlie thought was very much like the mentality of Cowboys. Which I infer was the reason for titling this chapter, “The Cowboy: Stoicism.” She also believes that if the state of Louisiana itself had been seated at Cappy and Fay’s dinner table, they probably would have taken Donny’s side. Which she supports further with the fact that it is legal to gamble and to carry a loaded gun into a bar. In this way, Louisiana appeared as a Cowboy kind of state to Arlie. Arlie also takes notice to the fact that Donny never thought of himself as a victim. In fact, he was critical of liberal-sounding talk about victimhood. And that Donny, and possibly the whole of Louisiana, “…were braving the worst of an industrial system, the fruits of which liberals enjoyed from a distance in their highly regulated and cleaner blue states.” Meaning the Louisianians don’t believe they are victims, and they endure the industries. While the liberals think they are victims, and that they need more regulations. But if those regulations were put in place, the industries would not be producing as much. Producing products the same liberals use. This is an interesting possibility for part of the disagreement between the two political groups.

The part of the chapter about taking risks to get things done may help me to better understand the person I am spending time with. He is hard working no doubt. But he is not a risk taker. And if Donny’s idea that you need to take risks to get things done is true. Then is he reducing what he could be achieving by being a no risk taker? Next time I see him I’ll ask about it. What made him start avoiding risks? And does he believe that is stunting his output? As of this moment, I am unsure how it would help me understand him, but I believe it will once I ask him about it. Risks are in everyone’s life, so what there something that happened to him that made him avoid risks? And depending on the scale of what happened, it could tell a lot about the way he is and the believes he holds. Because it is partly due to a person’s history that they choose one thing over another.

Source book-

Hochschild, Arlie Russell. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. New York: New Press, 2018.