One Life at a Time, Please

My second read of Ed Abbey's collection of thoughts on life, nature, government, literature, and miscellany reveals contradiction and vulnerability that I missed in the first breathless, worshipful read some fifteen years ago. It is a changed reader that now chaffs at Ed's calls for anarchy as the maximum form of democracy, while only a few pages away he pleads for a dystopian world in which an all-powerful government halts immigration, enacts draconian sterilization campaigns to cull the "weak", and purges all interlopers from wilderness areas. Populist, Malthusian Ed didn't seem to know what he wanted. He nails some of our modern problems that Bernie and others have since brought to the fore of political debate, then lurches into the show more xenophobia and parochial simple-mindedness of Trump (these are my dominant lenses today). Ed's succinct comparison of the Soviet Union (SU) and the US is even more brutally on target today: Government controls industry in the SU, industry controls government in the US.

Then there are passages on nature and relationships that bring tears to my eyes, such as: "We will return, someday. Isn't that what we always think as we hurry on, rushing toward the inane infinity of our unnameable desires? Isn't that what we always say?" show less

"From stories about cattlemen, fellow critics, his beloved desert, cities, and technocrats to thoughts on sin and redemption, this is one of our most treasured writers at the height of his powers."

This was a real treat for me - I adore Edward Abbey, and really enjoyed getting a small tour through his thoughts and philosophies.

"Ten thousand years of human history demonstrate that our freedoms cannot be entrusted to those ambitious few who are drawn to power; we must learn -- again -- to govern ourselves. Anarchism does not mean 'no rule'; it means 'no rulers.' Difficult but not utopian, anarchy means and requires self-rule, self-discipline, probity, character."

I've never been drawn to anarchy, but I've never heard it defined in such show more terms before, and it seems to me this definition bears a good deal of thinking about. Certainly we live in a time when our leaders and our government seem to defy the will of the people, but we count ourselves lucky to be living in such a regime. Would self-rule, characterized by self-discipline, probity and character be possible? Currently I think we would be likely to say no, but .... it's worth thinking about, isn't it? show less

Typical Abbey - I would be reading one story and be so excited about it and then next story I would be throwing the book across the room. A good combination of essays/articles about the environment, nature, adventure and politics.

Just an awesome book. Edward Abby was a brilliant observer and writer. This is such a good travel companion book too.