Through tribulation, it is important to remember that God can take evil and bring a greater good out of it. Afterall, He took the crucifixion, the evilest act in history, and brought about the salvation of humanity. And, too, can God take the coronavirus, for all the pain and suffering it has caused, and bring good out of it.
For one, we are finally seeing a rethinking of globalism enter the mainstream. For years the Dissident Right has warned of its dangers, but those warnings went unheeded. That may no longer be the case, as we now have a very good example of what can happen when a nation becomes dependent upon a hostile regime for basic supplies, especially one where living conditions make diseases very easy to spread. More importantly, we’re also seeing a greater amount of appreciation for all the good that ordinary, working men and women do – i.e., nurses, grocery store workers, and truck drivers. These folks make our lives easier. A lot of Yankees and urbanites look down on these people, but these past few weeks have shown us how much more important they are than the investment banker or VICE journalist.
The role of the trucker in all of this is something I would like to focus on, because I think going forward this is important to the cause of Dixie. Many people either don’t think too much about truckers or they’re annoyed by them. However, they are the silent workhorse of our economy; they put in a lot of work to keep our shelves stocked. These past few weeks have seen the trucker rise to something akin to an old-fashioned folk hero.
It reminds me of the last time the trucker rose to the level of a folk hero – during the gas crisis of the early 1970s. During those days, gas was rationed, which was an inconvenience to most Americans. To the trucker, it was death. They simply drove too much to not be able to get gas on certain days. Same with the federally imposed 55 MPH speed limit, their time was money and they couldn’t slow down, or else food and supplies wouldn’t be where and when it should be.
Truckers, in that great American outlaw tradition, began to fight back against the various gas rationing laws. For many Americans, they became a symbol of the battle against a government that didn’t care about the lives of ordinary citizens. And for us, this is important because truckers are, for the most part, working-class, Dixian men with rightwing views. In other words, we are seeing the very beginning of people realizing how important working-class, Dixian men actually are, and how much they depend on them. Millions are now witnessing just how much they need these Southern “deplorables.”
To say that American society in the early 1970s is healthier than American society today is a gross understatement, but it is worth noting that some very interesting cultural trends came out of the trucker’s rise as a folk hero at that time. CB radio became a popular activity for a while. There were several country songs extolling truckers. There were even a few movies playing on this trend. The best of this little genre is probably Smokey and the Bandit, a film which truly embodies the idea of the trucker as the sort of outlaw that makes life better (think Coors beer). There was also Convoy, which actually is as bad as you’ve heard, and this is coming from someone who likes the C.W. McCall song from this film.
One of my favorite films from this genre though is White Line Fever, a film that predates both Smokey and the Bandit as well as Convoy by a number of years. The film is set in Arizona (once again showing that Arizona is part of Dixie) and is a great look at 1970s working-class rage against both Big Business and Big Government. Honestly, is feels like the film Convoy should have been if Sam Peckinpah had been able to beat the bottle. Sadly, by the time Convoy came out Sam’s alcoholism had gotten so bad he was only capable of making a confused misfire like that one. To see White Line Fever play on so many of those same themes, that Peckinpah was playing with in Convoy but could never make work, is quite interesting and is well worth checking out.
Whether or not this newfound appreciation for truckers results in anything like Smokey and the Bandit or White Line Fever remains to be seen. But, that question is secondary to the larger issue of people finding out how much Dixians, particularly working-class, Southern men, make the (real) world go around. Use this to our advantage and be ready to combat the Left, who will try and prop-up ANY trucker who doesn’t fit this stereotype, no matter how small their numbers actually are.
Despite everything, they continue their cultural war against us, a war in which we are the source of all their ills and deserve no sympathy. Remember, the Left wins by portraying all Dixians like Dwight Yoakam’s character from Sling Blade. We win by presenting positive images of our people. This is an opportunity for us, let’s take it and make the best of it. The trucker is quickly becoming something of a folk hero, let’s be sure to remind people who truckers normally are – working-class, conservative, Dixian men from the rural South. They are our countrymen and we must make sure that their sacrifice, especially now, is remembered. We’re proud of them.
Roll on.
-By Dixie Anon
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
I grew up in Arizona, during the seventies, and remember all those trucker films And songs. As a boy I used to wonder where Mels Diner was Located in Phoenix , heh. My uncle was trucker out of Phoenix. One time I was riding with him and his codriver, sitting between them. He was sipping coffee with bourbon. Ah, the old days. Truckers matter.
Not only did they screw up Convoy (the movie), but they also managed to screw up McCall’s original Convoy (the song) in the movie trailer you linked to. Here’s the original (superior) version:
https://youtu.be/87r0CPQbFds
“…greater amount of appreciation for all the good that ordinary, working men and women do – i.e., nurses, grocery store workers, and truck drivers.”
Of course, truck drivers and nurses aren’t exactly low-paid professions but skilled labor with a STARTING pay of $1,000 a week or $25/hour respectively. Meanwhile, the unskilled grocery store worker will often begin at only minimum wage. Nonetheless, all three are certainly equal working class HEROES of the present worldwide pandemic.
Well, I don’t know about the “equally heroes” thing, but they’re all equally something, one supposes, if he thinks about it hard enough. I mean, I can’t really imagine a scenario in which truckers throughout the land had/have, strung across their rigs, banners declaring “HEROES work here!” I would post some pics of hospitals across the fruited (no pun intended) plain doing just that, and then some, if I knew how to post them. But you can find them all over the internet if you enter the right search terms. I don’t rightly know about grocery stores. Not in my neck of the woods, but my neck of the woods ain’t the whole woods, if you know what I mean.
Outlaw Truckers! I’ve known and know a substantial amount, although those days in the logistics business are almost extinct.
But what memories!
Outlaw Truckers! I’ve known and know a substantial amount, although those days in the logistics business are almost extinct.
But what memories!