I'm in a non-fiction book club, and our choice for this month was Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher. It's been over a week now since I finished the book and went to book club, so I'll do my best to remember the highlights. I was invited to this club by my friend Inger, whom I met last year when our kids were in the same class at Gingerbread. I had only been to one meeting, in September to discuss Nickel and Dimed, so I was still a bit nervous around these women, simply b/c I don't know them very well. Arriving at Inger's house put me at ease. Maybe it was the food cooking, the cool style of her house, the books on her shelves, the kids' artwork everywhere. I love being inside my friends' houses b/c I love to get a glimpse of their interior selves, and I was really excited by what I saw at Inger's. I already knew we had a lot in common, and I'm a little sad that we don't have more time to spend with one another. Will have to try to remedy that come the new year.
Anyway...the book discussion! Inger opened up by asking us to each name the book that most changed our world view, and did this particular book change our view. I couldn't think of a single book that changed my world view, but I could think of two books that changed the way I viewed my own life and that prompted some serious change. The first was The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer. Before I read that book (while I was some months along with Aidan), I thought that my OB new best, that the hospital had my best interest at heart, and that whatever happened during my pregnancy/birth was fate. After I read it, I could no longer be comfortable just accepting the status quo. I had to dig deeper to find a way to a birth that would be the best it could be. I was almost there with Aidan's birth, but the book was only a start. By the time I got pregnant with Evan, and I had read and learned even more and was ready to trust the process even more fully by going for midwifery-assisted homebirth and hypnobirthing. The Goer book also lead me in the direction of breastfeeding and attachment parenting, early choices that have just felt so right for our family. The decisions I've made in birth and in parenting have most definitely changed my world view, now that I think about it, but I'd have to spend much more time (as I'm already hijacking my own post!) pondering it. Of course, I was not this (!) eloquent at book club.
Crunchy Cons didn't seem to change anyone's world view at all. I think everyone mentioned Dreher's lack of evidence other than anecdotal. We were all left a little perplexed by his definitions of crunchy cons. Apparently, a crunchy con is someone who homeschools, eats organic/local foods when possible, shuns consumer culture, respects the environment, is deeply religious (but only Orthodox), is anti-choice, anti-death penalty, and is sympathetic to the NRA. I still wonder if more than a handful of these people exist. I would have wondered more a few years ago, before I got into the local homebirth community. Turns out that a lot of the local homebirthing families here in Oklahoma are very socially conservative, but believe strongly in families taking care of their own basic needs, such as birthing and schooling. So, I can see it a bit. I was really on board with a lot of Dreher's assertions, such as how being conservative these days seems to equal being materialistic with no boundaries. Witness the McMansions, the luxury tanks that pass for cars, the amount of consumer debt, etc. Dreher laments suburban sprawl, and I was with him all the way on this chapter. Only a few people seem to appreciate the wisdom of town centers, old houses, walkable and rideable streets, etc. Dreher writes a little about how this type of neighborhood is economically out of reach for most people, especially on the two coasts. I said a silent thank-you for where I live. Though our street location is less than ideal, I think we've finally found a house that reflects us, something we'd have to work hard to find in a cookie-cutter sprawl house. I was also totally with him on the food chapter, which reads like a very condensed version of The Omnivore's Dilemma, even interviewing the same farmer, Joe Salatin. Local, organic, seasonal, and unprocessed is the best way to eat. His fellow cons at The National Review making fun of him for picking up his produce from a co-op is what first prompted Dreher to write an article attempting to define crunchy cons.
The crunchy parts of the book I get. The con part is what I will leave behind, thank you very much. Dreher has little to say about liberals other than that the Democrats are "The Party of Lust." Apparently, the Sexual Revolution was the downfall of the family. The only thing it brought was permission for Americans to sleep with any and everyone, and apparently, liberals do. If Dreher would only learn more about feminism (and not as defined by Rush Limbaugh), he could work with organizations like Moms Rising to address a lot of the issues that are bringing down families. (The family is, Dreher asserts, the most important thing to conserve.) Oh, but wait. That would mean going out of his own personal sphere to try to effect change in the world. That's another thing that irritated me about the book. It's enough to work on your own family. Nowhere in the book does he mention how in the world conservatives are to help those less fortunate. I guess they are supposed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Oh, but wait. The low minimum wage, globalization and the resulting job-losses, the ridiculous housing market, and more have made it near impossible for the average American to worry about things like Craftsman Bungalows, hormone-free pastured beef, and homeschooling. Nowhere in the book does Dreher address race and class. He doesn't acknowledge that the traditional way of life he so idealizes was only possible for a certain race/class of people, and that it depended upon the subjugation of many.
I could go on and on, but I'll end here, and possibly add more thoughts later. I realize this review is not fit for publication, but I have to get some content on this blog or I'll die.
