The West
I suppose everybody who has ever thought much about it, has their own ideas about what it means to be a Westerner. More than most regions of the U.S.A., the West has layer upon layer of myths and clichés piled upon it. So much so that it could sometimes be mistaken for natural fertilizer. I figure that there’s nothing wrong with clichés as long as we Westerners don’t start believing in all of the horse sweat made up by other folks.
For years I’ve tried to put into words what I believe being a Westerner is all about. All of the while I have had to endure the claptrap shoveled by the powers-that-be about what they want us to believe about ourselves. Without naming names and to list just a few, these powers tend to be rich ranchers, corporate oil producers, politicians and preachers, usually born somewhere else. They all like to tell us who we are and what we should believe just because they said so and that we should mind our betters. What these folks really want to do is to get us to think of ourselves as being members of little groups that they can control with their fancy smoke and dime-store bravado. They want to lay their brands on us by calling us “blue-collar whites” or “gun nuts” or “evangelicals” or just plain old “Hispanic voters” (whoever exactly they might be). They almost never mention “Native Americans” unless they want to get in on some of that gambling denero or grab a bit more water.
So how do these powerful folks get it done? Well, I think the word is “macho”. You know, it’s that thing that men have got to have and women can’t resist; or so they say. Macho has turned from meaning strong, modest, reliable and brave, into believing whatever the powerful interests want you to believe without asking any embarrassing questions. Macho has now become the same as closed-minded, not-so-smart, afraid of foreigners and the future.
The media people tell us that Westerners are “conservative”. So if you are from the West or grew up out here or just like to think of yourself that way, then you have no choice but to be “conservative” and, if you’re male, “macho”. Now many folks don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, but you have got to ask yourself, “Who in the heck gets to say what a conservative is and why in the heck do we all have to be that way?” The truth is that these same powers-that-be want us to define ourselves that way and keep telling us that if we don’t we’re not macho. And you just can’t be a westerner unless you are macho. From what I can see around me now-a-days, being macho means having a truck with more horsepower than will ever be needed along with a muffler that magnifies the noise rather than diminishes it. You know, a whole lot of hat and no cattle.
So what do I believe it means to be a Westerner? Some of the words that come to mind are: Freedom, (yeah, I know it’s not free, you have to pay with macho.) Individuality, (sure, as long you believe exactly what the preachers and real estate brokers tell you.) Tolerance, (great, as long as you look and sound exactly the same as folks like me.) Nature, (‘course it’s beautiful but don’t get bothered by cheap grazing permits, atomic waste or shooting a few thousand pronghorns).
Now that I think about it, maybe the media have got it right. Maybe we are just what the-powers-that-be wanted us to become after all; mean-spirited, angry, unsure of our manhood, frightened by the folks that work for us illegally, narrow-minded, wasteful, destructive, dogmatic, and, let’s face it, not that bright. The real question we’re faced with is; do we really want to go on believing all of their bull, just to be macho?
As a freedom loving individual who makes a stab at tolerating the differences folks are born with while having some affection for our vast and beautiful land that surrounds us, I think it’s about time we started making up our own minds about who we are and stop listening to those powerful folks just because the own a ranch, run a company or claim to have God on their side.
