Friday, April 8, 2016

Modernity Has Not Been Kind to the Celt

From the pen of Apollon Zamp: 
"Throughout history, the denizens of rural Appalachia have been at a high risk of death from gunshot wounds, stabbings, and blunt force trauma. This is the seeming end result of piling too many Scots-Irishmen together and expecting them to co-exist peacefully (cf. a certain six counties of Ulster). Those causes of death have been replaced by the much less mediapathic,[1]but no less lethal, trio of diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.[2] Fast forward a couple of centuries and the main threat facing a mountaineer is the face he looks at in the mirror every morning. In the immortal words of the comic strip Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”The singular question any intelligent and curious observer is left with is: Why?Or, in other words: What happened to the Appalachia of yesteryear? Who’s responsible for its decline? How did it come to this?
The best answers I can provide are, respectively: it’s dead; the Federal government; and the inevitable progress of the welfare state."
I know most of you aren't into the American anthropology thing like I am, but I think you'll really enjoy this article. Thanks to the Baron at GOV for sharing this.




5 comments:

  1. Many of these same family lines settled the Ozarks, and their remnant remains. Although some have found work in what's left of our manufacturing plants, many more have retreated into a gov't check and a life of dependency, obesity, and myriad health problems. Others have left behind the whiskey still of their grandparents/great grandparents and instead cook meth on the kitchen stove, or grow weed in the forest.

    Those rascally Celts...gotta aggravate the G-Man, one way or the other. Ugh. That meth is some NASTY stuff. I'll take the home brew any time.

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    1. My mental image of lady red:

      imgw:"http://i.imgur.com/qpiBqIj.jpg"

      <3 love you! <3

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    2. LMAO!!! Pretty darn close lewy! (except these days I'm more likely to be clutching a bottle of ibuprofen in one fist and a bottle of gabapentin in the other, lol!).

      I love you too! :)

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  2. Way behind on my reading as so called "Real Life" has interrupted lately... but this article looks really good. Thanks!

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    1. You're welcome! :)

      It's been quiet around here lately...lots of real life going on. Hopefully that's a good thing!

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