Seoulscapade

Ted Nugent stands for just about everything I hate, and no doubt the same would be true of me for him. But you know, he has good qualities, such as being a no nonsense kind of guy, and you can’t say he doesn’t have conviction. It’s just the killing animals thing, and all of the lame connecting-with-nature claptrap he goes on about–all of that makes Ted one of the bad guys to me.

Ted keeps coming out with the same old spirit of the wild stuff, the same old huge collection of cliches, because he’s competent with cliches. He’s had a lot of practice living by them. For example, it is easy to grasp where he is coming from, although it’s kind of airy and vague as a definition, when he says that he follows a “powerful, natural, common sense, American way of life.” Redneck doesn’t sum it up for me; evangelical fascism is what I’d call it.

What disturbs me about the sentiments Ted expresses and represents is that they are all part of formula for behavior, a philosophy for a ready -made identity. Except for the American part, the kind of sentiments he expresses and his simple getting-back-to-basics prescriptions kind of remind me of what the Nazis envisioned for themselves and used to justify a lot of their excesses. Those kind of emotive terms are very easy to cast about and they can mean plenty of things to plenty of people in plenty of circumstances. You can always rely on “nature” as an argument to justify whatever you like. Very handy, come to think of it.

I once bought one of his records, I’m ashamed to say, but in my defense, it was based on the front cover and after listening to it, I lost interest. It wasn’t my thing–it all seemed much the same and was, how shall I put it, not your sophisticated kind of rock and roll. Pretty basic chords and riffs, that was the sum of it.

I remember as a kid reading how he sucked the electricity grid in some city to power his show and played louder than any band to tour there. That was a cool thing for a teenage kid into guitars and rock to hear. It was cool like the girls and booze and everything else that goes along with a rock and roll life. But now the rock and roll heart in me feels betrayed.

It didn’t strike me then that Nugent’s drive for volume was anything more than part of a guitar guy living a rock dream. Now, with experience and being more informed, I suspect that it wasn’t just a matter of rocking out. Nugent is a guy that clearly likes to dominate his environment. Making noise was a symptom of it, the more noise the better. Trying to dominate the environment around him is where he is still at, not having significantly progressed, it would seem.

In the old days, guys like that might be admired as a go-getter, a trail blazer out there conquering the world. Actually, he’s still portrayed like that in red neck circles, and let’s face it, red neck circles love guys like him. Take a look at his website, if you can stomach it, you’ll get the idea. His fan base would be looking pretty thin without their ranks. Nugent the hunter; Nugent the man on the land; Nugent the patriot; Nugent the responsible family man; Nugent the Christian; Nugent the all American. For me, it doesn’t get much worse.

A desperate need to identify with strength is integral to people who see themselves a great white hunters. Invariably, they’ll identify with hunters in the animal world, employing the imagery and stirring language to imply some association with dominating creatures like the wolf, the eagle, the tiger, and the rest. Behind it all is the mistaken belief that hunting and killing represents something the fartherest distance from insecurity. Hemingway made the same error.

Evangelical in his need to convince and persuade and win over, Ted’s like the a born-again obsessed with the need to shore up the delusion from collapsing. Harping on about life’s cycle of life and death or “honest lessons in life’s cycle of reality,” as he humourously puts it. Your reality Ted, not mine. You needed to write “bias propaganda on my cycle of reality,” if you are seeking to get in touch with the truth–just a tip for you. Although, I realize you’re not the type of guy open to advice.

Most people would realize that when Ted’s in full flight, raving on about some issue–those cliches tumbling out over each other. Take his use of a bow and arrow, his preferred technology to kill animals. Would I be wrong in saying that this method causes more distress and suffering? It’s not like you could perform a clean headshot for instantaneous death. No, he’s not a man who’ll change. His whole manhood depends on the hunt and what he hunts with, it seems.

“That any thinking person could possibly find fault with another’s chosen method of hunting is clearly an indictment to the foolish, soulless selfishness of some small mind elitists who, for some bizarre mental derangement, could possibly think they have the right, power or authority to dictate how a hunter chooses to kill his or her game. It’s pathetic, really.”

Mmm … them’s fighting words. Actually, I’d like to see all of your weapons taken away from you entirely, Ted, together with whatever hunting licences you have. I guess that’d make me even worse than a foolish, soulless, selfish, small minded, mentally deranged, pathetic elitist. Actually, I’m also one of those “maniac” vegetarians, to top it off.

In my small minded, deranged way, it concerns me that Ted evangelical zeal to dominate and indoctrinate is going to contribute to another generation of redneck killers. Ted runs a so-called Kamp for Kids, where they are taught to appreciate the outdoors–while heavily armed, of course, as it should be appreciated. I can just imagine one the camps and its timetable of screwy antics. I’m picturing a camp like the one on the documentary “Jesus Camp,” where manipulation and brainwashing are seen as valid tools for forging a preteen army for Christ. Bending kids’ minds doesn’t take much apparently.

They all seek approval. That’s what makes them suckers. The following is how it was for a kid at home with Ted. And it’s interesting to see someone reveal themselves in their own words in a way that is quite the opposite to what was intended.

“Most importantly, I did not push my children to hunt. I always made it available to them, even gently prodding and encouraging them to join me everytime I went afield, but never to the point of force or pressure. I shared the thrills of each and every hunt in stories and photos, and made it a point to let them know every night at the dinner table, “you should have been there! It was really cool!”

. . .

“Over the years, I tried to get them to join me on the easier maneuvers. Break them in gently.”

(http://www.tednugent.com/hunting/kamp/inspiration.aspx)

“Did not push”? Well, not physically, at least. But I think you’ve given us more than enough, Ted, to know how they were “broken in.” The word you were looking for was “manipulation.” To sound convincing, you needed to say, “I did not manipulate my children into going hunting,” then you would have been stating, well, pretty much the opposite of what actually comes across. You might have prevented the embarrassment of self incrimination, of the kind that appears to characterize everything you write.

Ted is pretty typical of the hunting crowd, even if he does appear to have some wits about him. They all strike me as such an uneducated bunch. I’ve looked around a few of their websites and that’s what jumps out at me, the lack of education–revealed by the cliches, uncovered by the self-deception.

Typically, you’ll find these people trying to build up the qualities of the wild animals they kill. They like to call them wily, cunning, fast, elusive. By implication, the person that tracks them down and kills them must have those qualities, too, in abundance to have come out victors. High tech gear, gadgetry and every comfort appear not to be factors. No matter how much they build up their victims’ powers, the odds are always in their favour. Where can there be pride in it, then?

The photographs these people have taken of their proud poses with their kills before them have a long tradition. But the one difference from yesteryear is that people in them, their kills propped up beside them, are now aligning themselves with conservation causes, helping the poor, improving the environment, controlling wild-life numbers, and even ethics. The way some of them go on about righteous and ethical hunting, you’d think you were hearing wisdom read from Buddhist scriptures, save for the parts about slaughtering, which kind of deflate their highfalutin pretensions.

Let’s cut through the crap: the animals these people kill are defenseless. What have they got to defend themselves against high velocity projectiles shot at them from tens of meters away. Where is the skill in hunting animals that have no more than naked bodies for protection, who can only charge and bite or flee? What challenge can there possibly be in it?

What psychological triggers are behind the compulsion to live the delusion of a kinship with wild? Isn’t is just all about feeling powerful through dominating another living thing?

These people don’t fool me, and neither do you Ted: finding the beast within, connecting with nature, spirit of the wild–that’s all bullshit. When you go beyond the pavement, why don’t you really go beyond it, I mean, properly. Get rid of the trappings of modern life, get rid of your vehicle, get rid of your equipment and weapons and make your own, get rid of your clothes and get rid of your high tech communications. Then you can really feel the spirit of the wild, the way animals have to live it.

Only then would you be hunting on level ground to survive. Only then could you even come close to earning any respect from me, you pussies