A bit on North Dakota's National Geographic "controversy"
North Dakotans sure are a sensitive group! A couple weeks ago, I wrote a bit about Charles Bowden's wonderful piece on North Dakota's dying prairie communities. It seems Bowden's National Geographic article touched a nerve (shitty subscription link again) with important, well educated, community leaders (not to mention our special out-of-state "ambassadors") that pretend to care about such things.
I grew up in small town North Dakota. To me, and many of the people enraged over Bowden's piece, it's old news that small towns are dying. That doesn't mean, however, it's a topic the many people across the world that read National Geographic magazine are familiar with. The article doesn't dwell on the urban areas of ND, because the article isn't about urban areas of ND. The article doesn't talk much about high wheat prices and the oil boom, because it isn't about either of those two subjects. Bowden was going for a broad historical picture of declining rural prairie communities, not for a recent economic analysis. (Lines like "for almost a century we’ve watched stranded towns and houses fall one by one like autumn leaves in the chill of October" led me to that conclusion.) Perhaps critics would have been happy with a profile of a profitable, yet government subsidized, massive farming operation, but it seems to me big ag has enough power and gets enough attention the way it is. (They've certainly got enough clout to kill any farm bill provision that sets reasonable payment limits.)
I, along with others I've talked to, understood the piece to be about a declining way of life on the prairie. Gone are the days of unity, class consciousness, mistrust of bosses and politicians- here are the days of huge agribusiness, tyrannical corporations and a state legislature that, with few exceptions, acts like the state's pimp. Gone are the small communities sustained by small farms, here are the cities full of low paying service industry jobs. I could go on and on. This reactionary political dive has been going on everywhere in the country, that's true, but ND is as good of place as any to profile. In fact, considering the rural "populist" history of the state (which Bowden mentions, but his critics seem to miss), it is a perfect example of not only the dying prairie, but the dying prairie values.
Instead of getting all pissy, critics of the piece should take a long hard look in the mirror. This is the result of putting private interests above public ones. Sure, today "North Dakota's economy is good," but it always is, for a few people.
I grew up in small town North Dakota. To me, and many of the people enraged over Bowden's piece, it's old news that small towns are dying. That doesn't mean, however, it's a topic the many people across the world that read National Geographic magazine are familiar with. The article doesn't dwell on the urban areas of ND, because the article isn't about urban areas of ND. The article doesn't talk much about high wheat prices and the oil boom, because it isn't about either of those two subjects. Bowden was going for a broad historical picture of declining rural prairie communities, not for a recent economic analysis. (Lines like "for almost a century we’ve watched stranded towns and houses fall one by one like autumn leaves in the chill of October" led me to that conclusion.) Perhaps critics would have been happy with a profile of a profitable, yet government subsidized, massive farming operation, but it seems to me big ag has enough power and gets enough attention the way it is. (They've certainly got enough clout to kill any farm bill provision that sets reasonable payment limits.)
I, along with others I've talked to, understood the piece to be about a declining way of life on the prairie. Gone are the days of unity, class consciousness, mistrust of bosses and politicians- here are the days of huge agribusiness, tyrannical corporations and a state legislature that, with few exceptions, acts like the state's pimp. Gone are the small communities sustained by small farms, here are the cities full of low paying service industry jobs. I could go on and on. This reactionary political dive has been going on everywhere in the country, that's true, but ND is as good of place as any to profile. In fact, considering the rural "populist" history of the state (which Bowden mentions, but his critics seem to miss), it is a perfect example of not only the dying prairie, but the dying prairie values.
Instead of getting all pissy, critics of the piece should take a long hard look in the mirror. This is the result of putting private interests above public ones. Sure, today "North Dakota's economy is good," but it always is, for a few people.
posted by Graeme at 3:10 AM
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