Song: “Merry Go ‘Round”
Artist: Kacey Musgraves
Album: “Same Trailer, Different Park” (2012)
Genre: Country
Kacey Musgraves’s 2012 portrait of working-class, or maybe lower-middle-class, ennui is poignant almost to the point of painful. Though Musgraves herself is a liberal, her song pairs well with noted libertarian Kevin D. Williamson’s indispensable essay on Appalachia, which he dubs the “Big White Ghetto.”
Unlike the other songs reviewed here so far, Musgrave’s piece lacks an explicit villain (except for maybe “tradition”). Life in flyover country is just monotonous and dissatisfying in her narrative world. You get married from boredom, you have kids (by 21 years old) because that’s what one does, and you raise them in “tiny little boxes in a row” in some small town or suburb. You smoke some marijuana, commit adultery, and/or go to church to try and cope.
Early on in Friday Night Lights (2004), the best sports movie ever made, some players for the Permian High football team are hanging out at a restaurant. A Permian alum walks up to them and exhorts them to “get you one of these,” as he gestures to his own championship ring. Afterwards, he says, “there’s nothing but babies and memories.”
Of course, the reality is more complex than this. Most of my own experience in small towns and rural areas has been positive. I still sometimes miss living in Clinton County, Illinois. On the other hand, “deaths of despair,” i.e., deaths from alcohol, drugs or suicide, are very real, and they tend to affect rural communities disproportionately. Poverty per simpliciter can only be a partial explanation, especially seeing that, like, Mississippi is probably better off than the United Kingdom on a per capita basis. Musgraves, interestingly, doesn’t even mention poverty directly. For her, what’s wrong is something almost spiritual in nature, but it’s not something you can fix by going to church (she suspects that a lot of folks in the pews don’t believe the Nicene Creed in their heart of hearts). Besides, the “tradition” of marriage and family that church enforces stifles any opportunities to escape the Permian Basins of the world, or else the creativity necessary to revitalize them.
In reality, working-class white people increasingly neither get married nor go to church. Bucking “tradition,” however, has not led to a widespread rural renaissance. It’s not entirely clear what would. The recent phenomenon of “reshoring,” i.e., companies bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, might help. What won’t help is the further atomization of American society. Nor will right-wing radicalization, which corresponds with a decline in church attendance.
Church can stifle; it can also provide life-saving community and purpose. Getting rid of it doesn’t make the world less heartless (Marx). In my opinion, the greatest challenge (and opportunity) facing the American church right now is to rearticulate the gospel in a way that begins rural people back into the fold. Radicalized politics and drug usage are just the “same trailer, different park.” What’s needed is some combination of economic opportunity and spiritual renewal.