Bogeyman in the Big Sky
When Franklin D Roosevelt famously said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, his concern was for the paralyzing effect of “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.” But perhaps a more troubling effect of fear is when it actually mobilizes a people and “unreasoning” terror is turned inward. In this state of hyper vigilance, the bonds which create “the social” are abandoned and individuals, families and clans retreat into a state of hair-triggered defensiveness, even paranoia. Everyone else, the Other, is presumed a potential intruder, becoming the mythical bogeyman. In a hyper-competitive, fluid and uncertain world engaged in a perpetual war on terror and struggle over resources, these tensions are now erupting daily as xenophobic, sectarian violence of one sort or another. In my local region, this Hobbesian mistrust and fear manifests most commonly as the well-armed individual holed up in his castle, scanning the perimeter for the enemy.
I drive a school bus in the Bitterroot valley and a first grader whose wardrobe consists entirely of camouflage clothing excitedly showed me his NRA membership card the other day. Now I grew up with guns and watched shoot em up westerns and war movies. We locked our doors at night and were taught not to accept rides from strangers. So it would be easy to say “gun culture” and safety concerns have always been around, that today’s over-grown boys with their fantasies and loud toys now demand, and so get, more attention. But there could be a qualitative difference. The other day I saw a window sticker on a vehicle that said LOVE. But in what passes for a sick irony among enthusiasts, the letters, upon closer inspection, were formed by arranging various weapons: an assault rifle for the L, a grenade for the O…And yet, because an unarmed 17 year old was shot in the face and killed for trespassing last April, I find this smirking sentiment not just repulsive but complicit. The killer claims that though he was the one carrying the loaded shotgun, he was afraid for his life. His claim also extends to his property, which he feels justified using deadly force to protect. And the law may indemnify him. Montana has what is known as the “Castle Law” but its language includes a test: the person “defending” their property must fear for their safety. My friend, who was also the young man’s soccer coach, was interviewed on a local radio station and, attempting to excavate the roots of such irrational fear, asked the question, “who is the bogeyman?”
Along an incredibly scenic, 150 mile stretch of U.S. Hwy 93 between Stevensville and Kalispell, Montana, sit six ammunition production companies and at least seven small arms manufacturing facilities. Like morel mushrooms after a summer rain, much of this burgeoning industry has sprung up in the wake of the election of Barack Obama. Around the country, demand for ammunition far out-strips supply as throngs of new gun owners join old in stockpiling against a perceived government enforced ban or, more ominously, cataclysmic disorder. There is a surge in women’s shooting clubs and the sale of specialized accessories such as pink holsters and camo attire. Keystone Sporting Arms sells 60,000 children’s rifles a year with names like Chipmunk and Cricket . A Bloomberg survey predicts that in 2015, firearms fatalities are likely to exceed traffic fatalities for the first time.
And just as New Agers have moved to this part of western Montana for years in the belief it is a mystical “energy vortex”, an influx of libertarian leaning, often Christian fundamentalist, citizens “worried about the world falling apart” are now relocating here in the hope the area can become what is known in survivalist philosophy as the “American Re-doubt”. This contemporary, fear-driven exodus, a conservative version of the “occupy” movement, melds conveniently with the booming arms industry as well as the many cross currents of Sagebrush Rebellion, “patriot” militia activity and nativist reaction to modern change already prevalent in the region. At the confluence of these reactionary strands of populism is “gun culture”, stoked recently by Tea Party politics and the increasing influence of the NRA.
The reasons this remote corridor should become the chosen homeland for these folks is rooted in a number of factors: it is predominately white, there is abundant open space and wild game, and there is a history of armed rebellion or resistance using “any means necessary”. As the Cliven Bundy vs BLM saga in Nevada demonstrates, a revived militia/Freemen movement desperately seeks its own Galt’s Gulch in what they feel is an increasingly Ayn Randian dystopia of New World Order socialism and secular humanism. This internal fear of “the enemy within” is blended with perceived threats from outside foes in the existential War on Terror, be they jihadists or immigrants. All of this angst is stewed in an atmosphere of post-crisis economic volatility, interminable foreign wars, extra-judicial killing through drones, rendition, torture, and NSA surveillance. Is it really such a leap from there to a population buying ammunition as fast as it can be produced, digging underground bunkers and shooting themselves, their children and unarmed civilians under the rubric of “stand your ground” laws?
Two years ago I attended a meeting of the group Celebrating Conservatism here in Hamilton. These gatherings, held monthly, attracted up to five hundred participants on a cold winter weeknight. While some vendors were selling dried food, body armor and survival gear, others, such as the John Birch Society and the Libertarian Party, were selling their particular brand of ideology. The gal on the podium scanned the congregation and asked “how many people here tonight are packing?” A large majority raised their hands. The fiery little woman, holster on her own hip, scolded the rest. “You need to join these brave patriots”. I was reminded both of the woman’s bravado and what, in his poem “The Second Coming, W.B. Yeats called “passionate intensity” while watching Sarah Palin speak to the faithful at the recent NRA convention. Barely below the snark and swagger there is a pathological cultural resentment, insecurity and yes, fear. Following history’s most repetitive and frightening scripts, her binary, demagogic divisions of “them” and “us”, right and wrong, plays to the crowd’s need for reassurance and simplicity in a rapidly changing, globalized world.
The 17 year old German foreign exchange high school student killed by the homeowner’s shotgun blast was named Diren Dede. His killer, purportedly victimized by past burglaries, left a visible purse in an open garage and arranged sensors and video cameras to know when the trespassers were in his trap. He fired four shots into the dark garage, high enough, he hoped, so as not to damage his car. A picture on the papers front page that same day showed the exultant face of a man cleared of all charges for killing an intruder in his home several months prior. And just a few hours before Diren was killed, a 19 year old houseguest, mistaken for an intruder, had been accidentally shot out in Billings. These incidents are unremarkable in a country where an average of 250 people are shot each day and where armed vigilante groups such as the Oath Keepers and various citizens militias espouse doctrines of retaliatory violence wrapped in the flag and sporting tradition. The more mainstream 2nd Amendment rhetoric of the NRA goes to great pains to distance itself from the Colombines and “aberrant” mass shootings while subtly courting the insurrectionists and vigilantes.
A few miles out of town one of the county’s commissioners has built an elaborate bunker system designed to withstand “the inevitable firestorm”. In survivalist jargon, those engaging in this Ark-like preoccupation are known as “preppers”. Local churches preach Old Testament prophesy about the mark of the beast and diabolical national leaders. The local radio station broadcasts a daily diet of right-wing vitriol and righteous indignation. Environmentalists are nearly as despised as the wolves and grizzly bears they try to protect and attempts at land-use planning denounced as nanny-state over-regulation and interference with the sacred free market.
Echoing certain progressive narratives around “community rights” and autonomy, our county commissioners are pushing an agenda which includes local control of public lands, in this case National Forest, hoping to free up resources for extraction by “job creators”. In his essay, The Rhetoric of Violence, journalist Chris Hedges writes about “neoliberalism’s shock troops”, this insanely weaponized posse deputized by their own fierce belief, faith or conviction that they are chosen to defend the Constitution and capitalism, that they are the last glimmer of light against the forces of darkness, duty bound to protect the real, honorable America against this unrecognizable amalgamation of ethnicities, gender identities and redistributive policies. Many will patrol neighborhoods or border fences. Some will rush to defend sovereign citizens and private property rights wherever Big Government infringes. In the Bitterroot Valley they hope to make their last stand, as long as their powder remains dry and their hearts true, and build a new America from the ashes of the old. An America more in their own image and imagination.
