The Cowboy Way
So I'm in my local book store doing a little research for my new story and I see a big coffee table glossy called Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn From the Code of the West. Perfect, my story centers around destructive western mythology! The book is predictably a goldmine of simplistic platitudes expressing a system of ethics derived from John Wayne movies accented with stunning Marlboro Man photos and quirkey little homilies. But dig a little deeper and here's our old Tea Party buddies working their Libertarian schtick to the bone. The gist of it is something like this:
Our country is in trouble and "we need leaders", modern "heroes to remind us of our capacity for greatness" (Sort of sounds like Obamas speech!) and who better exemplifies these values than the Cowboy? "Strong ,steadfast, he'll never hesitate to do what's right." The unwritten Code of the West which he lives by should be the model for our whole society. Optimism, honesty, loyalty, "moral courage" without wearing it on your sleeve.Self-reliance and "faith in the rightness of the natural order of things."
We all watched westerns, Little House on the Prarie,Gunsmoke,etc, but some internalized it more than others. The book says "If you're lookin for a helpin hand, try the one on the end of your own damn arm",make do with what you have, be humble,confident,cheerful. "It was up to each man to uphold virtue and stand square against evil." and these qualities which made America great ( but have slipped away) are still in our national DNA.To "cowboy up" means to "follow the wagon boss through hell and never complain." Sappy, sentimental, illiterate and anti-historical,this narrative has a political agenda that is anti-worker, anti-social and anti-plural, the juvenile, intellectually bankrupt ideology upon which Ronald Reagan manipulated mass fear and anxiety.
Following the author,James P Owen, into the rabbit hole we find out he is a partner in Austin Capital Management and "Director of Corporate Values" at the Paragon Foundations "Center for Cowboy Ethics and Leadership". I shit you not.This Texan Master of the Universe saw a western movie one day and had an epiphany! And it ties in nicely with Celebrating Conservatism and Tea Baggers and every Sagebrush Rebelling moron Iv'e ever come up against as demonstrated by their mission statement:
"The Paragon Foundation provides for education,research and the exchange of ideas in an effort to promote and support Constitutional Principles, individual freedoms, PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS and the continuation of rural customs and culture..."
But even on Bonanza there were problems and it turns out Austin Capital Management is being sued by different pension funds for losing all their money in Bernie Madoffs ponzi scheme! Also for sending out a tax reminder to Hispanic males that read ; "Muchas Gracias! 21 million illegal aliens are depending on you!" On the Paragon website you find James P Owens' Investors Guide to Hedge Funds: Profiting From Uncertainty followed by "John Wayne: A Western Celebration" followed by "Minutemen: The Battle to Secure Americas Borders"
It's time to expose some of the less, humble, cheerful honest aspects of the "Cowboy Way".
posted by troutsky @ 6:47 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
May I suggest the cinematic works of Sam Peckinpah, especially the great "Ride the High Country".
There is absolutely no doubt that a thread running through his films is the destruction of the West by capitalism.
... the tragic story of Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott carrying a gold shipment and McCea getting ideas because he's getting old and he needs the payday. For the ages.
When the chucrch "cowboy's up"
Good link Ducky
Beak could probably share some fireside gospel with us as well in this vein. After all, the Judeo-Christian faith, along with our Islamic tag along brethren, are only an aspect of that conscious awareness of self that resulted in materialist aggravation or spiritual retreat. It is no surprise that there are now a whole lot of believers who wannabe like Tammy Faye and her doomed spouse.
Troutsky - morality, no matter how it is articulated, is the civilized reaction to our recognition of the loss of a more primal relationship with the world we inhabit. It is the result of political culture,and societal-economic conditions which breed fear, anxiety, alienation and despair.
And although Beak thinks despair is only found in Marxist societies, he is only deluding himself...because he is the most desperate of all. Welcome to the game Beak... good luck on the treadmill!
Krusty er Kultur Clown
Whatever foolishness Jim Baker did he did not kill 100000000 like the death cultists.
The Cowboy was an individualist unlike commie lemmings. Of course
commies always cried about Boris Badenov.
Actually, Islam has more in common with communism than the ignorant
Kultur would assume. Ren can toss
his manifesto for a Koran and pretty much say the same words.
I want to note one can find plenty
of decent Muslims. Communists on the other hand are all evil.
That is fascinating Ducky,it blends in with new age folks I know who believe their mind controls the distribution of the universes wealth.
What Islam is doing to the European welfare state "New" Christianity/ Cowboy Americanism is doing to U.S. Keynesian policy.Our own immigrant influx is another factor, no one wants to pay for "Them".
Kultur, I try to stay clear of "moral" argument myself, but hold to the promise of plural, egalitarian politics to settle (not answer) questions, disputes, distribution issues. This "anxiety" stems from a false politics, a spectacular politics that everyone recognizes as a cruel joke but they play along with out of cynical despair or delusion.
I would be curious to know where there exists or existed a "Marxist society"?
"The Cowboy was an individualist unlike commie lemmings."
The cowboy was a piss-poor country kid who took up employment in the most available booming sector of work. He was generally despised by most of the people whose communities he passed through on cattle drives. 19th century western newspapers all show that most people considered the cowboy a rowdy, violent drunkard. If old time cowboys were around today, they'd write ordinances to keep them from sitting 12 feet from a business entrance.
The cowboy was a character of almost universal ill-repute until Thomas Ince made him a heroic figure in early Hollywood.
That's all, no more, no less. A worker with a dirty, dangerous and ultimately thankless job. Let's quit romanticizing it one way or another.
Or as John Ford said in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, "When the myth is larger than the truth, print the myth".
trout, do you mean followers of "The Secret"? I think they're dying out, positive thinking wasn't paying the mortgage. Didn't deliver the swag.
The prosperity gospel folks though, I have to hand it to them. You came up with that great line about the "invisible hand dipping into the collection plate" well they figured out how to really make that literally work.
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.
DB Cooper er whatever.
The Cowboy lifestyle represents more than men on a Cattle Drive. It also is about farmers, tradesmen and other people in the West.
The spirit of individualism is part of my national heritage. Commies national heritage includes class genocide, gulags, planned starvation,killing fields, property theft, promotion of terrorism, treason, crimes against humanity and not one single tangible benefit to humanity.
It seems Marxist puritans are quite hypocritical. Prostitution is quite rampant in Cuba and in other Communist countries. Perhaps
people like Troutsky and Che Bob should be asked if they are exploiting the locals when they go on their subsidized Theresenstadt tours.
Where is Krusty the Kultur Klown?
I have watched Mazzola commercials
for hours and still do not get his retro Noble Savage BS. Maybe Kultur
would hold up the Orangutan as his Apex of all man can be. Being an actual Orangutan would be a step forward on the evolutionary scale for Ren. Commies are on a par with Nazis, Jihadists, racial power kooks and most violent criminals.
Cope, Exactly. What my story tries to get at is cowboys as unorganized workers, all the good and the bad, like real humans. Like Beak they run into that spectacularized "spirit of individualism" which the ruling class uses to oppress them.
Missoula has plenty of broken down old cowboys who are abandoned by society sleeping in doorways.
BTW, I think your sidewalk work is a great idea.I will try to help out.
Troutsky
Commies are the apex of exploiters.
Commies like yourself start with an infantile approach to economics. The whole talk of class and exploitation are merely code word to justify theftmismanage resources, monopolize power
and commit crimes against humanity.
The prisoners in Gitmo have better health care than Cubans. They eat a better diet than Cubans. They can practice their religion freely and have freer access to libraries than Cubans.
If Cubans could defect to Gitmo they would flood the place to get away from Marxist malfeasance.
Beak, are you suggesting that Cuban sex workers organize or are you presenting that as an example of the plight of unorganized workers?
I try to follow your arguments but it can be difficult. Can I assume you agree with troutsky on the ultimate failure of "rugged individualism" which simple leads to a rather easy "divide and conquer" strategy for Kapital?
By the way, you haver a lot to say about Marx. Can you give his critique of capitalism in a nutshell and explain where he went wrong (labor theory of value?). I don't mean to put you on the spot but you need to focus more precisely.
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"The spirit of individualism is part of my national heritage."
So Beak, maybe we have discovered your problem; and America's problem concurrently. Unfortunately this 'spirit of individualism may be at the foundation not only of your own sense of malaise, but it may also be the trouble with 'kill the competitor and worker' capitalist economics, as well as the basis of our modern alienated consciousness.
We might even see in this slogan, the origins of division of labor, specialization, management and worker, master and slave, and the building up of an urban, civilized culture that has destroyed our freedom and our dignity, while also decimating everything around us in order to satisfy our selfish, individualistic 'needs'.
If we continue to live by the myth that the self is somehow saperate from and independent of his or her surrounding mileau (social, natural, etc); if we constantly focus on the advancement of that individual above all else, then there can be no alternative but to see the world in stark terms of black or white, self or other, friend or foe.
I think there must be a better way.
Let's cowboy up with Austin Kapital Management --- I knew that name was familiar, the Massachusetts state pension fund lost 25 million with those RICO candidates.
Here's a recent suit filing, there are a bunch. Man, these he-man cowboy Kapital managers were busy roping in the suckers.
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Spector Roseman Kodroff & Willis, P.C. has filed a second class action against Austin Capital Management Ltd. for millions of dollars of losses due to improper investments in securities controlled by Bernard L. Madoff and his company. The suit, brought on behalf of the Pittsburgh-based Board of Trustees of the Steamfitters Local 449 Retirement Security Fund and a nationwide class of similar funds, alleges that Austin failed to prudently invest the benefit funds' assets, in violation of Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The complaint alleges that Austin was a fiduciary to the class of benefit funds and owed them the duty to manage investments with the highest care. Instead, the complaint alleges, Austin failed to notice the numerous red flags about the Madoff-related securities.
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I think "fiduciary" is a real bad word in this context. "Due diligence" is another phrase you don't want to hear.
It's precious, trout. Good find.
"The Cowboy lifestyle represents more than men on a Cattle Drive. It also is about farmers, tradesmen and other people in the West."
Oh, I see, we're talking about archetypes, or in layman's terms, bullshit. Gotcha.
Kulture Klub
Lets start of with your rather infantile understanding of economics.The business cycle is still with us.There have been events like the Great Depression and the mess of Carterism.
The fact that we are in a down cycle does not infer anything is wrong with Capitalism.
Competition is good for everyone. Companies come and go and this is the nature of the system. It is up to the individual to control his own destiny with government intervention being rare for special cases.
You seem not to grasp the scale of
the crimes against humanity committed in the name of the insane
Marx. Are you as charitable with Nazis, Jihadist and racial power nuts? The death toll of all of the above does not come close, with zero achievements.
You need to stop romancing the lives of preindustrial man. There
was a mix of good and evil. The notion that everyone lived life
like a Mazzola commercial is just
idiocy. The challenges were just different. Pick up any of the works of Jared Diamond for a more coherent view.
Duncy
All Cubans should organize and hang
their Communist slavers. Communism
is neoslavery with people like Ren
and Troutsky making excuses for
people whose exploitation is far worse than before. How many years
of excuses and cliches are the faithful going to repeat.
Db Cooper
The Cowboy has come to be a symbol
of the American West. Perhaps if you were versed in Culture instead
of taking bong hits and reading Mickey Marxist Manifestos you would not sound like a bumpkin.
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Beak-
You're right. As someone born and raised in the rural American west, I should probably just defer to the wisdom of a New Yorker who seems to know about as much about cowboys as they do Indians. Relax, I get the point, you can return to your dime novel now.
And I'm not a fucking Marxist, dipshit. We've been over this before.
DB Cooper
You are an ignoramus. The fact that you are from a rural area makes your
idiocy even more profound.
Keep smoking the weed and promoting
Groucho Marxism.
beak-
Consider yourself in the company of the king death-cultist himself, Karl Marx:
"The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns, it has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life."
-The Communist Manifesto.
This is indicative of a tendency in Marxism (one of many) I have strong disagreements with. Ironically you seem to be in accord with it, commie.
Then again, I've read enough Marx to know where I disagree with him, instead of just relying on the History Channel.
See ya in the Kremlin, comrade.
C.W.
"and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life."
Don't you see the irony, or perhaps, sarcasm in Marx's statement here. That is the way I read it, in light of the context and his his continuing diatribe thereafter.
But, I am not an expert on Marx. Just curious about your opinion.
My understanding of classic Marxist theory is that industrialization was generally considered a positive, even necessary, development in the evolution of human society- so I don't find much irony in the statment.
Maybe I've misread Marx and Engels, but part of their argument seems to have been that while the means of industrial production were in the wrong hands for the time being, it was generally a good thing that they existed (so that the working class had a medium/reason of sorts with which to rise to socialism). I'm pretty sure Marx and Engels made it clear that their idea of a socialist revolution can only happen in an industrialized nation. I seem to remember that on several occasions Marx stated western colonialism would eventually be a good thing, so subjugated peoples could be brought up to modern times, then overthrow the european yoke and institute socialism.
I understand this is not a common sentiment among most Marxists presently, or even since the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, but it does seem to have been part of the original argument and I think needs to be dealt with. Of course nobody should be shocked that part of the writings of a 19th century european intellectual were doggedly ethnocentric (this being true even of intellectuals I favor over Marx such as Bakunin and Proudhoun).
I'm not completely anti-Marxist, I think his criticisms of capitalism were unassailable, but certain parts of his philosophy (such as the almost millenarian nation that history will progress positively, and the vague prescription for a "dictatorship of the proletariat") leave a bad taste in my mouth. I'm also not too fond of any societal restructuring that could further alienate man from his natural environment.
DB Cooper
Do you have any more idiocy. You just are what commies describe as a useful idiot.
Either way your understanding of history, human nature and economics
is at the remedial levels.
Communism and all the talk about class is a mere smokescreen for theft by a greater evil. The wholesale crimes against humanity created by the left in the name of Marx are real. Any attempt by Troutsky to rationalize them is on a par with Holocaust denial.
Cope, Beak is here to provide us with gems like the "individualism" quote.I wouldn't suggest open engagement with an anti-structuralist on meth- his mind only works anecdotally and contains only one example. More interesting would have been Yodoods take. I have been exploring the tension between individual autonomy and constitutional or natural law "individualism" for a while and find lots of common ground with kultur on this one.
Ducky, Austin Capital is in all kinds of shit. Just as an aside, the Montana Grizzlys beat Stephen J Austin yesterday 51 - 0 in div 2 quarter finals.
I think the "idiocy of rural life" Marx-Engles spoke of is very real even today. We can imagine the social relations of 1850! This is not to condemn every aspect but the "idiocy" or unorganized nature of the worker existence is exemplified in the Cowboy Way.
Many great critiques of "Marxism" and I stress the ISM, such as the ones Copeland mentions, have been incorporated to dialectically move Marx forward into the present.Lots of water and many changes under the bridge of orthodoxy.
Marx's strict materialism has been a stumbling point for me. Frankly, the Catholic Worker movement softened it quite a bit for me (cue Beak in 1,2 ...
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