for the hillbilly.rnScholars say the term was coined circarn1500 in hilly Scotland, where “billie”rnmeant fellow or companion. The termrncrossed the Atlantic and re-routed intornAppalachia. I’here were other terms forrnhardworking migrants: poor white, woolhat,rnredneck, tarhecl, bluegrass. NorthrnCarolinians arc still known as tarhecls,rnand Kentucky is the Bluegrass State.rnBack then “western Virginia” meantrn”western America.” The WildernessrnRoad was a Virginia road. Kentucky wasrna Virginia county. Orange County, establishedrnin 1734, stretched to the Mississippi.rnJefferson sent two fellow Virginians,rnLewis and Clark, to push to thernPacific. They did.rnMeanwhile hillbillies, landless andrnoften penniless pilgrims, were passingrnlarge rivers without shoes or stockingsrnand (as Moses Austin wrote) “with barelyrnas manv rags as covers their nakedness,”rnTheir songs reflected a poignancyrnand a sadness that still marks countryrnmusic:rnI came to this country in seventyfortyrnninernI saw many a true love, but Irnnever say mine.rnI looked all around me and foundrnI was alonernAnd me a poor stranger, a longrnway from home.rnThere were good moments. 1 he childrenrncould mock mockingbirds, catchrnJuncy bugs, and call doodlebugs out ofrntheir holes. There were revivals andrnweddings with lots of vittles: pork, beef,rnturkey, bear, corn pone, chuckv-beans.rnMaybe even pot licker. There was somethingrnelse: community, hi traditionalrnsocieties such as theirs, people were thernmost valuable resource and place gavernidentity, hi modern times the formularnis changing. “Things” are in the saddlernand ride mankind. Power and privilegernare indispensable; people are disposable.rn”In our Western societies,” MarcellrnMauss writes, “we have turned peoplerninto economic animals.”rnThe results arc devastating—for families,rncities, nations. Wedded to the bottomrnline, we have hit the bottom so farrnas consensus, discipline, and denial arernconcerned, histcad vyc go for the gold,rnlook out for Number One, winner takernall. This may create sports stars, celebrities,rnjunk-bond dealers—but community?rnChange is in the air. That is the chiefrnlesson of the 1992 political campaign atrnhome and of populist revolts abroad, histcadrnof fire power, we need a fired-uprneconomy. Instead of more stealthrnbombers and spy satellites, we needrnmore jobs. Of course we have commitmentsrnabroad, but where docs charityrnbegin? At home.rnCountry music has been saying thisrnfor a long time. For generations it wasrnfolk music. Folklore is the country mousernspeaking, even when the city mouse isn’trnlistening. For a long time Appalachianrnfolklore was confined to the isolated hillsrnand hollows where it originated. NotrnLIBERAL ARTSrnPI ^^^rn’^—•^ viP^’rnBUT WHEN MEN PRODUCE 1 HEM . . .rn”A dramatic, controversial feminist look at women who work in the pornographyrnindustry. Docs one woman’s rise from porn star to porn producer change the system?rnDoes Etta Jenks continue to exploit tlic people who work within the industrv,rnor docs slic offer women sex workers tlic power to market themselves?rnEngage witli us in this powerful, theatrical story.”rn—from a J992 announcement for Etta Jenks, a “theater presentation” atrnthe University of Wisconsin-Madison.rnuntil 1925 did the “Grand Ole Opry”rnbegin airing country music, broadcastrnfrom Nashville. It proved to be thernlongest continuous show on radio. ThernNashville Sound is still booming, withrnrecords, tapes, and television shows thatrnreach a worid audience. It has come underrndifferent labels: country, western,rncountry-western, mountain, old-time,rndixie, cowboy, Nashville, rockabilly. Thernfirst American to combine hillbillv andrnmusic 111 print was Abel Green, in thernDecember 1926 issue of Variety magazine.rnHow could he have dreamed ofrnthe Nashville Rexolution that followed?rnIn 1985, 16 country albums went gold,rneach selling half a million copies. Inrn1992, 35 went platinum—selling over arnmillion apiece. During those ‘ears TNNrn(Nashville’s country-based cable network)rnjumped from seven to 53 millionrnsubscribers, and who knows how manvrnpeople fought their way through urbanrnclutter and pollution to watch ThernDukes of Hazzard, The Beverly Hillbillies,rnor Hee Haw?rnThe village green seems more attractivernthan the global village. Mr. Big isrnon the retreat. The EC is seeing its planrnfor a united Europe blocked by farmers,rntruck drivers, local merchants. LattlernDenmark, like David, has ahead} daredrnto defy Goliath and to withdraw fromrnthe union. French truckers defied theirrngovernment and halted traffic for davs.rnThe middle class is tired of workingrnmore and enjo) ing less, expecting solutionsrnbut getting soundbites. For manyrnpeople, life is a mere barrage of unsolicitedrnmail, of hard-sell phone calls fromrnstrangers, of notes from a bungling bureaucracyrnthat does nothing in particularrnand does it rather well. Paper paper c -rnerywhere, and not a chance to think.rnEnough already!rnWhat shall we do? E. M. Forster suggestsrna two-word answer: Only Connect.rnThat is what Garth Brooks does andrnwhat we must do with our families,rnneighbors, politicians, and students.rnWe want to li’c in harmony, if not alwaysrnin agreement. This never has been,rnand won’t be, easy. It will require newrn”habits of the heart,” new modes ofrnthinking. Amidst all our problems, therernare some healtli signs, some good people,rnsome emerging leaders. And, ofrncourse, there’s always country music.rnMarshall Fishwick is a professor ofrnEnglish at Virginia Polytechnic inrnBlacksburg, Virginia.rn50/CHRONICLESrnrnrn