Cascadia*

I’ve followed the Cascadia movements for more than 20 years in the American Northwest and Southwestern Canada. They are as much literary and cultural as political and environmental. The individuals I’ve met are more than tramps, activists, militants, poets, and travelers. They also demonstrate the human desire for a meaningful life and a better future. From idealistic to dystopian, Cascadian ideologies are a complex framework of values that reflect deficiencies in the mainstream social fabric. Cascadia bridges the ideological spectrum in America, with advocates from the far-left to the far-right competing to control a narrative.

My fascination with this phenomena goes back to high school in Eugene, Oregon around 1995 when I photographed Amiri Baraka in the auditorium. He was reading his Beat poetry to a room full of impressionable students who had little notion of the context for his work. We were likely aware of Ken Kesey, however, who could be considered a successor to the counter-culture lineage of the Beats. Kesey had roots in the Willamette Valley and was an esteemed member of the community in Eugene. He also represented a fiercely independent culture tied to the land. By college I had read Jack Kerouac’s writing, including The Dharma Bums, which takes place in Washington State. I learned about the writers Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder, and Raymond Carver, who all had ties to the region. Robert Frank’s photography in The Americans and Mary Ellen Mark’s Streetwise and Oregon State Hospital images began to stick in my mind. Over the years, I realized that the mentality of the West could represent the cultural barriers that the Beats had faced. These were frontiers that were unknown and dangerous to explore, conquer, and experience. I also realized how the West was shaped by myths.

It wasn’t until Seattle’s streets were clogged with teargas during the WTO meeting in 1999 that I embarked on my documentation. I traveled to the forests of Oregon to study tree-sitting and learned about the diversity of ideas and personalities that drive social movements. Almost no cause is disregarded in Cascadia, from youth incarceration and racism to deforestation and free-trade agreements. The anger, angst, and alternative lifestyles reflect tragic literary themes and contrast the beauty of the physical environment. Perhaps, the escapism afforded by the natural world is a salve for the painful realities of modern society. The ties to the land also become emotional, economic, and spiritual.

The right-wing has always been an undercurrent in the Cascadia dialogue, often represented by authority and resource management, but since the rise of populism in the 2010’s has been represented by militias. The militias share characteristics with some far-left Cascadian values, of an armed-uprising, regional identity, and militancy. Right-wing Cascadians are also prone to the same escapism and fantasy as the left, with an extra degree of delusion. This delusion is manifested as disregard for climate issues, which is a dangerous fault that has the potential to destroy life as we know it, regardless of ideological persuasion.

I’m editing this synopsis on the smoky Tuesday morning of September 8, 2020 as forest-fires rage across the West. Last night a march to the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild in an industrial district of Seattle was dispersed with irritants and force. The election is now about two months away with no clear path in-sight.

Reference Links:

The Cascadia Movement began to emerge during the debates around globalization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-globalization_movement

Ecotopia was a utopian novel written in the 1970's by Ernest Callenbach that has been manifested in reality in recent years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia

In additional to being a literary concept, the Ecotopia movement is rooted in the science of Bioregionalism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioregionalism

One theory is that the successionist movement goes back to beat literature, including The Dharma Bums.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dharma_Bums

The Cascadia Independence Movement a manifestation of the Ecotopian narrative, based on anti-globalization and environmental values.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(independence_movement)

The map of Cascadia is well regarded in the cartographic field.

http://www.marshamccloskey.com/cascadiamap.html

Fair-Trade is one of the movements that integrated economic, social, and environmental concerns, which Ecotopia and now Cascadia embody.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade

Cascadia and left-wing groups in the Northwest of the US find resonance with populist values, most significantly Democratic Socialism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism

The current phenomena in the Northwest is also part of the ongoing narrative of the American West, of iconoclastic, individualistic, and contrasting values. These contrasting values are epitomized by the narrative between Ken Kesey, who wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion, and Wallace Stegner who wrote Angle of Repose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo%27s_Nest_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sometimes_a_Great_Notion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_Repose

Thomas Friedman was an early proponent of economic globalization, which is heavily critiqued by the Anti-Globalization Movement.

http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/

The clash of ideas was also visible in Seattle during a World Trade Organization meeting.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/06/us/after-riots-seattle-is-chagrined-yet-cheerful.html?scp=4&sq=seattle+wto+protests&st=nyt

At the same time, forest policies were being challenged by groups espousing radical environmental values. They were classified as domestic terrorist organizations.

http://www.ifatreefallsfilm.com/

The utopian and dystopian literary genres have continued to tackle environmental issues, notably Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx_and_Crake

Punk music appeals to both left and right-wing groups who feel persecuted for their views.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Cross_(band)

An article that traces the complexity of interwoven economies and the Great Recession:

https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/globalization-after-recession

Michael O’Sullivan proposes new definitions of the world order and introduces a period of multipolarity:

https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/06/28/globalisation-is-dead-and-we-need-to-invent-a-new-world-order?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fbl%2Fed%2Fauto

The emergence of Right-wing succession in the Cascadia region:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/oregon-residents-petition-secede-part-state-idaho/story?id=69069056

Portland Protests featuring “Cascadia” graffiti:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/portland-oregon-blm-protest-1040818/

Joseph Stiglitz developed “Progressive Capitalism” as a response to inequality:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/joseph-stiglitz.asp

https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/07/08/if-capitalism-is-broken-maybe-its-fixable

“Of Forests and Fields: Mexican Labor in the Pacific Northwest” by Mario Jimenez Sifuentez references the Ecotopia book in the introduction, explaining migrant laborers’ misunderstood role in Northwest history.

https://muse.jhu.edu/book/45043