JACK BURNS LIVES!

“What are we waiting for? The time is late.”-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Edward Abbey was born this day in 1927. He’d be 85 and while almost certainly in a state of utter outrage over our current affairs, I think it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have been surprised. Abbey’s work is amongst the most prescient in American literature. Even a cursory evaluation of our current affairs confirms Ed’s grave predictions for American society, environmentally, socially and culturally. With phenomenal clarity, he confronted us with some of the most simple but profound truths of our time.

One, unrestrained growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell. Unchecked, it will ultimately destroy its host. And two, when humans are too far removed from nature, from their natural homes, they become mad.

“Men and women are trapped in the drudgery and tedium of meaningless jobs and the despoliation of a continent, the gray skies, the ruined rivers, the ravaged hills, the clearcut forests, the industrialized farms, all to keep that Gross National Product growing ever grosser. Madness and folly Untouched by human hands. Unguided by human minds.”

As a people, we’ve unfortunately ignored Ed’s wise instruction. We’ve marched onward, bulldozing, cutting, drilling and fracking, making more and more of our magnificent planet literally uninhabitable. Fucking up the entire planet isn’t enough, however. A few lunatics on the right, along with their mad scientist friends, now want to fuck up the entire solar system.

Abbey predicted what happens to humans when they don’t have enough space. Enough room to roam, room to escape the suffocating grip of of the cities. We go mad, and I honestly don’t have enough time or perhaps even room on this server to list all the examples of our madness.

Although there is one recent example that sticks out.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “afraid of a mouse.” Turns out we probably should be afraid of them, because today, the electronic version has become the trigger of a powerful weapon. So-called freedom fighters in the employ of the United States government can end your time on the planet with a single click. They sit in comfy chairs, hidden in secret bunkers, staring into computer screens, effortlessly dealing death with their menacing toys. Like the Christian god, the reach of the United States military is now almost infinite and its gaze omnipresent. It’s apparently also omnipotent, as it reserves the right to determine policy for the entire planet. Global judge, jury and executioner. A rogue state.

What sort of sick mind comes up with these ideas? What’s happened to real science? Ed, as usual, was right. Science has become “the whore of industry.”

“Science with a human face-is such a thing possible anymore? We live in a time when technology and technologists seem determined to make the earth unfit to live upon…the mad scientist, once only a comic figure in a specialize branch of fiction, has now come luridly to life in a hundred thousand forms. Together with his co-workers in big government, big industry, and the military, he dominates our lives. Ultimately, they will tyrannize the planet.”-Edward Abbey, “Science With a Human Face”

Ed missed the gradual erosion of human rights in America. In his time, we made some progress with racial and gender inequality, but since then, we’ve taken ten steps backward. In 2012, an American citizen can not only be indefinitely detained without representation, he or she can be executed by agents of the United States government and at the behest of a single person. In the twenty three years since Ed’s passing, we’ve fully militarized our police forces and seen private prisons become one of our largest growth industries. Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot executed anyone that got in their way, but mass executions don’t go over so well in the U.S., at least not on our soil. Americans are driven by profit, and tossing more people into prisons, people who are often victims of economic inequality and economic oppression, is the solution du jour. Why kill ‘em when you make money off ‘em?

Corporations can now buy elections, as corporate powers are now free to spend whatever they want on whomever they want.

Abbey’s predictions about the effects of industrialization are nearly fully realized. Don’t believe me? Check the numbers.

Millions have lost their homes to foreclosure schemes. Thousands die without health insurance, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor is as great as its ever been.

And yet, here we sit wondering “what to do?” Most of us are so busy just trying to keep a job, pay expenses, take care of our families and have some peace. To most of us, the problems of American society, much less those of the planet, seem completely overwhelming. Ed himself said we should be reluctant enthusiasts, part time crusaders, half-hearted fanatics, that we should save some time for ourselves and for adventure.

But now things are more grave. We face a critical moment in time when inaction is unthinkable and half-hearted commitment seems unavoidably insufficient. A few brave individuals, like Tim De Christopher, have put their asses on the line for all of us, human and non-human. Bill McKibben has become an important voice. But it’s not the responsibility of any one person to fill the void or lead the fight. It’s the responsibility of every person that loves this planet, and all of its inhabitants, to take a stand.

Be bold and unafraid. Stand for what you stand on.

Oh, and happy Birthday, Ed. We’ll do better.

“This is what you shall do: Be loyal to what you love, Be true to the Earth, and Fight your enemies with passion and laughter.”-Edward Abbey

‎”New dynasties will arise, new tyrants will appear-no doubt. But we must and we can resist such recurrent aberrations by keeping true to the earth and remaining loyal to our basic animal nature. Humans were free before the word freedom became necessary. Slavery is a cultural invention. Liberty is life: eros plus anarchos equals bios. Long live democracy. Two cheers for anarchy.” -Edward Abbey

I had the pleasure of seeing Noam Chomsky Saturday evening at the 30th anniversary celebration for the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center in Memphis. His comments were tailored to the event and centered around Dr. King’s legacy and vision. His message was deep but clear.

The answer to the key question, are we any closer to achieving Dr. King’s dream, was pretty straightforward: no. Chomsky correctly made the point, that in many ways, we’re further behind. Just look at the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the upper classes since the 1970′s. This has been aided by the movement of manufacturing jobs overseas, one sector where African-Americans did have an opportunity to obtain better paying jobs with benefits. But of course American capitalists seized upon the opportunity to pay much cheaper labor rates overseas, frequently benefitting from the use of child labor. The jobs here were largely lost, and African Americans have been amongst the most heavily impacted.

Trace the decline of U.S. manufacturing since the 1970′s to the decline in net worth amongst the African-American population over the same period. Then trace the rise of a new sector, the private prison industry.

According to Pew, the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. From 2005 to 2009, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66% among Hispanic households and 53% among black households, compared with just 16% among white households. Today, the typical black household has less than $6000 in wealth. The typical Hispanic household has approximately $6,500. Average white households have approximately $113K.

But the transfer of wealth is just one issue. All Americans have seen an erosion in human rights. Any American can be held indefinitely and without representation for vague, unconstitutional reasons. And thanks in no small part to a politically motivated Supreme Court, corporations anywhere in the world can essentially buy elections.

Have we made any advances? Sure. Women have seen clear advances. The Internet has become a valuable tool in spreading information and exposing misinformation. We elected a black President, although it now seems clear he’s not the leader we’d hoped for. American power, often supported by violence, has expanded exponentially around the globe, and the disparity in wealth is worse than its ever been. Our home, the only home we’ll ever have, now approaches a state of ecocide. This portends a very poor future for all of us, humans and non-humans.

The uncomfortable truth is we’ve moved further away from Dr. King’s dream and closer to an Orwellian nightmare.

“Men come and go, cities rise and fall, whole civilizations appear and disappear-the earth remains, slightly modified. The earth remains, and the heartbreaking beauty where there are no hearts to break.” -Edward Abbey

ABQJournal Online
By John W. Flores / Albuquerque Resident on Sun, Aug 7, 2011

Fitting Tribute For Homemade Classic
Not long ago I wrote a letter to Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry asking that the city find some way to celebrate what is acting legend Kirk Douglas’ favorite film out of all the ones he’s made in his long career – “Lonely Are the Brave.”

It’s a story based on the book by the individualist philosopher and environmentalist author Edward Abbey, titled “The Brave Cowboy.”

After Douglas read this fine piece of writing, he soon bought the movie rights. He loved the book’s central character, John W. “Jack” Burns, a war veteran in the late 1940s who became a wandering cowboy on his chestnut mare named Whiskey, working from ranch to ranch across the wide-open Southwest.

He’s the last of a dying breed even in 1962, when the movie is set in and around Albuquerque – with special details on the nearby Sandia Mountains. In the Sandias, Burns would find a fleeting refuge for his frontiersman instincts and sensibilities.

My letter to Berry was simple enough, and had a great effect. I asked that we honor Douglas in the summer of 2012, the 50th anniversary of the film’s release, by holding an event where the city would show that film and proclaim Douglas’ favorite all-time character, Jack Burns, a distinguished local wandering cowboy.

Douglas would appreciate that.

Berry sent my letter to Ann Lerner, the director of the Albuquerque Film Office, and she called me right away, saying that the mayor was enthusiastic about the idea and so was she. So Lerner called me up to her office a couple of weeks ago and knighted me with the noble, if impossible, task as chairman of a committee with the sole purpose of “getting Mr. Douglas interested in coming here” for a screening of his great work on that movie.

“Lonely Are the Brave” also stars Walter Matthau, Carroll O’Connor, George Kennedy and Gena Rowlands.

Paul Bardacke, who is a former state attorney general and now a prominent attorney in Albuquerque, told me he thinks this is a “great idea.” Bardacke is an old college roommate of Douglas’ son, actor and director Michael Douglas.

I also have the task of finding as many “extras” from that 1962 film as I can to be on hand at the screening. The movie was a big deal for everyone here in the small town that Albuquerque was in those days. Now, it’s grown up. But there are still a few people around, no doubt, who were in it.

Lerner was so excited about the screening and celebration that she already made arrangements to have the event at the historic KiMo Theater on old Route 66, the central road across New Mexico in those days, when Jack Burns and his mare ambled across the five volcanoes on the western mesa, across the Rio Grande and through the northern part of the city.

The opening scene shows Burns putting out his campfire, looking up at a newfangled airliner streaking across the deep blue autumn sky. He then cuts barbed wire after reading the sign held up by that fence that says: “Duke City.”

That’s the first sign his character is a rugged young man hell-bent on being free. He’s about to encounter a troubled, harried, angst-ridden society with only the guitar on his back to placate him and his horse on their endless travels across the modern, slowly vanishing American West.

After reading the book, it’s easy to see why Douglas immediately snapped up the rights to it. He hired veteran screenwriter Dalton Trumbo – who had been black-listed by the McCarthy people, who found some remote association to “communism.” Douglas hired him without prejudice, and Trumbo produced in one draft what Douglas calls “a perfect script.” No rewrites.

If Douglas cannot attend – he is getting up there in age (he’ll be 95 in December) – I want to express in a letter to him on behalf of people everywhere that we appreciate what he loved about an unforgettable literary and cinematic character who, like Douglas himself, was always willing to fight for what he believed in. Never afraid to put it all on the line for a great cause. Always loyal to his friends.

And in spite of everything, never letting go of his dreams for a better world.

The Hopi word meaning “life out of balance” or “weird craziness, man.” Abbey wrote about it when discussing the insane growth in and around Tucson, but it accurately describes life all across these not so United States of America. And perhaps no more so than in Texas, which is experiencing one of the worst droughts in that region’s history. Massive expansion of human populations in cities, unsustainable demands for water in homes, in recreation, industrial agriculture and energy production equals a cluster-fuck of immense proportions.

Today’s New York Times has an article about the emerging water wars in Texas, which are most assuredly going to worsen as the population continue to expand and resources become more and more scarce.

It was drought that lead to the collapse of the Comanche empire. Their massive horse herds competed with buffalo for water during a ten year drought, taking the best watering holes and driving the buffalo north. An instance where American Indian land use practices weren’t so smart, since the buffalo where critical to their existence on the plains. In a weakened state, they started raiding cattle, which didn’t sit too well with anglo settlers. The Feds and Texas Rangers intervened and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now it’s our turn to face the music.

“The purpose and function of government is not to preside over change but to prevent change. By political methods when unavoidable, by violence when convenient.”-Edward Abbey

I’m been helping a friend with the maintenance of a Facebook page dedicated to Cactus Ed. He’s in the middle of a move and needed a hand with posting daily Abbey quotes.
When the plea for help went out, I eagerly volunteered, figuring the worst case scenario was I’d have to pull out all of my Abbey books and start looking up quotes. Sounds like a nice way to spend a day. I could take the easy way out and go to the quote database at the Abbeyweb, but decided to be a stubborn purist and pull the quotes directly from my own collection of books.
After all, books are now a threatened species, thanks to the emergence of digital readers. On one level, they seem like a sensible way to maintain a large volume of information in a single, easily accessible place, but I’m not sold. I like the book in my hand. I like to make notes in the margins, dog ear pages. I get comfort from seeing all my books along my walls. And all of this digital information resides somewhere, and that somewhere is a data center that requires massive amounts of energy to keep it up and running. Of course, it takes energy to produce and transport the books, perhaps more. Who knows, but I want the book in my hand. Old school. Always resist “progress.”
Each evening, I pull out “an Abbey” (they’re like works of art to me) and start reading. Sometimes, I just scan a few pages searching for one of his hundreds of gems (it doesn’t take a long to find one), but most days, I indulge myself with several of his essays, underlining, making notes, just like I did when I first discovered Cactus Ed. It’s been a refreshing fun ride, reading some essays and passages I haven’t read in several years.
And after all these years, his words are fresh, and his spot on prescience never fails to amaze me. With honesty and clarity, he accurately identified the enemy, clearly explained our predicament and offered reasonable suggestions on how to resist. He made it clear we have a moral obligation to resist and made clear he didn’t suffer fence straddlers.
Neither do I. Either join us or gird your loins.
Who is “us?” We’re the earth lovers. People that love our home, our natural home and our only home, and feel it is our moral obligation to stand against mindless industrialism, tyranny and oppression. We follow the truth, no matter where it leads us. We speak for the voiceless, and we stand for what we stand on.
We thank Cactus Ed for leading the way, and though Ed is sadly no longer with us, his ideas and his words live. The Abbeyeistas still ride.
Onward, compadres!

“If industrial man continues to multiply his numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural world and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of his making. He will make himself an exile from the earth and then will know at last, if he is still capable of feeling anything, the pain and agony of final loss. He will understand what the captive Zia Indians meant when they made a song of their sickness for home:

My home over there,
Now I remember it;
And when I see that mountain far away,
Why then I weep,
Why then I weep,
Remembering my home.”

Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, “Down the River”

So, another lunatic has predicted the rapture, the Christian fantasy that all of Christ’s followers will be gathered in the sky with Him, safe and sound and out of harms way of this big old nasty earth so full of evil. The earth that, as Christians tell it, “shall pass away.”

To be followed by the Tribulation, a period of great torment. Seems like we might be there already, because as I survey the landscape, what I see is mostly death, destruction and mayhem. Perpetual war and genocide in the Middle East, the theft of public lands in the U.S., the destruction of ecosystems courtesy of multi-national corporations and class war on the aged, the infirm and the less fortunate.

How can it get any worse? I guess another WalMart could open in my neighborhood, so yes, it can always be worse.

It seems to me that life would be so much better if humans focused on the here and the now and stopped viewing life as little more than a warmup for eternity. This is the big show. Nirvana is now.

All of this talk of living forever. Thank god we don’t live forever. There’s too many of us humans roaming around already. As Abbey said, old time desert rats can’t breathe properly without at least a cubic mile of unshared space about them. Can you imagine what the earth will look like if the average life expectancy of a human reaches 90? The Catholics want women to be baby machines, and Christians of all stripes are infiltrating political positions so they can monitor women’s uteri and destroy birth control education. Christians want the planet crawling with humans, and it seems they’re winning the ideological battle.

Humans, of course, think they’re in control, but they’re not. Ole Ma Nature rears up every once in a while, kicks us in the butt and restores the balance. Viruses and bacteria mutate and evolve. Tornados ignore radar and weathermen and go as they please. The Mighty Mississippi flows as she wishes. Humans hang on, but never seem to learn the earth is not ours to “subdue.” We’re lucky to be here. Every day is a gift.

Myself, I experience rapture every time I see a thunderstorm make its way over a mesa. Each time I see a towering Century plant in the desert. When I’m fortunate enough to see U. americanus in the Smokies. When I hold my wife’s hand as I walk down a long, winding trail in the Southern San Juans to find a remote alpine lake. When we enjoy a hearty meal with our children and our friends. When I read a good book, and when flowers and tomatoes bloom in my garden.

“What does the desert mean? It means what it is. It is there, it will be there when we are gone. But for a while we living things-men, women, birds, that coyote howling far off on yonder stony ridge-we were a part of it all. That should be enough.” Edward Abbey, Beyond The Wall, “Desert Images”

It is enough.

Thanks to Kent Duryee for this find….

From:
Western Review
A Journal of the Humanities
Published winter and summer by
Western New Mexico University, Silver City New Mexico
Volume 4, Number 1
Summer, 1967
Sunflowers
by Edward Abbey

It was a clean stark high sparkling sunlit silent desert morning. Hayduke sat at his desk in the
backyard, facing his typewriter. But listening to a meadowlark. And thinking of the mountains.
Those mountains, he thought, oh those magic and magnetic mountains where the mule deer – at
this very moment – are gnawing at the bark of aspens, and the jackrabbits plunge through snow
under dripping piñon trees, and the redtailed hawk, also starving – but in style, with pride, with
honor – rides the thermal pillars, his merciless green eyes glittering with cold clear craw hunger.
Buen fuerte, compañero…

The rest is here.

There’s a recent article in the Canyon Country Zephyr titled “How Did Ed Abbey Know the System Would Tank” by Scott Thompson. It was brought to my attention by a couple of pards on the Abbeyweb…gracias, amigos.

Thompson proposes Ed perhaps had some level of intuitiveness typically only seen in indigenous/primitive people. Interesting, but it strikes me as an overly-romantic fantasy where Ed becomes some sort of desert wandering shaman.

There’s really no evidence of it. There’s no way to verify it. A fun topic to discuss over a couple of beers? Yes, but easily dismissed, I think.

Ed most likely came to these conclusions for two reasons. His background in philosophy had a lot to do with it. He was a deep thinker and was also a man of noted common sense. He looked at the bigger picture and was fascinated by the “why” and “what if” questions in life. It’s not hard to see how a philosopher that loved the natural world would observe expanding industrial civilization and not easily reach the conclusion that it was untenable.

The more pertinent question is why so many others have yet to reach the same conclusion, and what, if anything, can change it?