Abbey's Road: Part 1

[@rj.e.2474]

"The worse the environment gets the more popular environmentalism becomes." If only that we're true sir. Another truly great man rolls in his grave.

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

What a sage, inspirational man. Very prophetic. I live in Arizona right now. Things he wrote about, was concerned about, warned about, have nearly entirely come to fruition. Just look at Glen Canyon dam. Agree with him or not, like him or not, it's just uncanny how accurate his vision was of the future. I will say this though, Palo Verde has, after some initial bumps, turned out to be an incredible resource of green energy, without incident, at least in the years after he passed away. One also would argue that total free market economics hurt nuclear's power to produce green energy into this future, turning us to more oil, and fossil fuel burning. But global warming wasn't quite as known in 1982 in this regard.

[@MaineOffGrid.]

Thank you for showing this. I was only 3 years old in 1982, so therefore never discovered his writing until long after his departure from the earth. I really wish I could have known this man. My favorite author, reading his work makes it easy to picture myself in his shoes since I have formed opinions very much like his own. Love you always Ed.........

[@MikaelLewisify]

What a truly wonderful man. Where are our Ed Abbeys today? We need more people like Ed in the world.

[@mr.t6142]

Check out American author Thomas C. Stuhr. Former park ranger. Similar views and raw passionate writing style to Abbey. Books on KDP a m a z o n.

[@MikaelLewisify]

@@mr.t6142 I will check him out. TY!

[@michaelderyder426]

Why don't you become one? Quit asking for the hero and become one.

[@MikaelLewisify]

@@michaelderyder426 why don’t you stop being a dick?

[@grizzleypeak]

Older video, but glad to see it. Abbey was an inspirational, intelligent dude ahead of his time in many ways... I wish I could have had a beer with him sometime....... Hayduke Lives!

[@MrProsody]

This is wonderful. The next time I teach Abbey, I'll make sure my students see this. Thanks for posting it.

[@edwoosters1057]

Way ahead of his time in many ways, not to mention an excellent writer. My first Abbey read was The Monkey Wrench Gang, truly awesome. Thanks for posting!!

[@chrisbirdsall6055]

I just spent a week visiting Death Valley NP and have begun reading 'Desert Solitaire.' This is what real intelligence looks like.

[@Thefragmentedforest]

So ahead of his time.

[@SKC977]

i just found out about this awesome man someone recommend his bodies of work to me

[@joansmith69]

Non fiction: Desert Solitaire Fiction: Black Sun

[@rmcnabb]

Fantastic interview. Ask solid questions, then shut up and let the great man talk. Thank you for this.

[@PapajosTraders]

Have read most of his books starting many years ago. Loved the desert as much as me......

[@whenimetmymuse]

Nobody I'd rather read these days! Thanks for putting this video up. Remarkable character and a great writer.

[@northguilford]

Thanks for this. I was thinking about Abbey on Earth Day and had never heard him speak before watching this. Glad you made it accessible.

[@Broblem12]

glad to have this to watch and appreciate. timely and also timeless. thank you for sharing this. blessings to you my friend.

[@johnpoole8451]

Sorry to see a few racists claiming Abbey as their own simply on the basis of his remarks about illegal immigration. A fuller view of Abbey (I’ve read him thoroughly) suggests that he would view what is happening-the huge worldwide movement of people fleeing violence and poverty in their native lands- as the result of corporations and tyranny running wild. Racists such as some below blame the victims rather than the forces that made them victims. Abbey was a complicated, but very thoughtful man. It is easy to project many views from parts of his works. But, it is impossible to know what he truly believed because he is gone. And, like any thinking person, he was always modifying his views, based on his experience. He would have been a fine and challenging drinking companion.

[@larryinteresting9836]

Racism saves lives. Your grandchildren will thank us.

[@gregory_adam5350]

He wasn’t a racist, but at the same time he was certainly not a bleeding heart liberal and today would be labeled as politically incorrect as you can get, and I appreciate the hell out of him for it. I don’t necessarily agree with all his views, and that’s ok, but I like him a lot and have read almost all of his non-fiction.

[@gives_bad_advice]

pretty hard to say the man didn't have a racist bone in his body (not that you did). i suspect his ulna but not much else. i say this after 29 years of on-again/off-again study of most of what he wrote. to see the view- count of this video at 54k is heartbreaking but not surprising

[@johnalbert5786]

Being against illegal immigration doesn’t make you racist.

[@steverice8855]

I guess you have pink hair and a ring in your nose

[@blackwoodhymnal]

we just bought one of his books on a trip to zions.

[@isaackarns385]

His comment about water still hits in 2024

[@deschutesmaple4520]

Land developers and real estate interests have hi-jacked the vocabulary of this topic. Beautiful wild lands are 'undeveloped': i.e., they have no value and need to be 'developed', i.e. made into sterile detached home neighborhoods. If you argue to save a forest or old farm orchard from becoming a subdivision, you are immediately labeled 'anti-business', 'communist',anti-apitalism', 'anti-job creation', etc.

[@Dingoes8MeBabies]

Well-put

[@ceili]

Excellent point

[@rd264]

I hate developers. they have no values whatsoever. and I hate the people that feed off developers: county leaders that rely on developers to build bigger houses and malls etc because such brings in higher property taxes, which are needed because the elected officials pushed the development which brought in pressures on services schools etc!

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

Great post.

[@EricTemple]

Glad to share!

[@johnhoyle1647]

Great, just great.....

[@BigMikeMVHC]

Thank you for sharing this; a truly fascinating man.

[@zekehooper]

I like him already as he is smoking a cigar!!!!

[@aztiff]

and the crackling fire

[@chrispykelly]

R.I.P. EA!

[@calamagrostis88]

Just read Gessners book comparing him to Stegner, and the main difference is that Stegner was a better writer, but Abbey was much more fun to read, and was a man that you would want to spend time with, unless you were a woman who wanted a faithful husband. From Desert Solitare there is the scene of poking his walking stick into the ant hill, the loved to fuck with people. That is what makes people love him and hate him.

[@los9095]

Love how he doesn't get all worked up over his views.

[@grantprice4456]

And now we got golf courses in the middle of the desert in AZ. Using thousands of gallons of freshwater... this arrogance will get us killed.

[@roninscholar]

It seems as though someone might have thrown back a few before their interview...lol, my hero

[@EricTemple]

roninscholar He seemed pretty sober when I interviewed him. A great man.

? Seems sober enough to me...

[@SoleexperiencesOrg]

Love and miss you Ed!

[@gives_bad_advice]

Ed was a social commentator whether he liked it or not.

[@mr.t6142]

Check out Thomas C. Stuhr. American author with similar style of the great Abbey. KDP books rock.

[@drivingwhileblack6225]

Very cool!

[@boathemian7694]

Wow remember when James What? was what we called a disaster? Jesus. We are sooo off the goddamned rails it’s mind boggling. I was an ecology student just after this interview in Colorado where we read Abbey

[@rise54321]

Good God we need a thousand more like him! HAYDUKE LIVES DAMNIT, HAYDUKE LIVES!!!

[@johnbowers9547]

Nah. He sold out just like the rest of us.

[@michaelhagerart]

420th upvote for this. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[@aztiff]

Ed Abbey would've gone crazy over aerial spraying..

[@Enkubuss]

"Well I think it has a very good future. The worse the environment gets the more popular environmentalism becomes. People like James Watt do us a lot of good, reallly spur interest in environmentalism. Boost the membership in all sorts on conservation organizations. People always get concerned about things that they think they're in danger of losing well it often comes too late. Like America has led the way i nthis field we are probably the most environmentally concious big industrial nation on earth. "

[@ikmarchini]

Good interviewer: ask your question, shut up, and let the interviewed speak freely. I usually turn interviews off as the host is so busy egomaniacally turning the discourse to shine on the interviewer. PS, seems Abbey was a prophet.

[@allthingsconsdrble]

Prescient sentiment regarding the breakdown/meltdown of nuclear technologies and the need for whole-town evacuations at 6:50

[@dogwalk3]

abbey & kerouac represent the best of "the usa."

[@BobHunter1977]

Filmed in his writing cabin Eric? ( Happy 91st Birthday today Ed! )

[@EricTemple]

BobHunter1977 Exactly!

[@BobHunter1977]

I wonder if the person who bought Ed's old Tucson house knew of Ed and the stories of his cabin? Wonder if the cabin is still there? I know Clarke moved back to Moab after Ed died, but that's all I know.

[@EricTemple]

Just looked on Google Earth. I don't see the cabin anymore. That's a shame.

[@BobHunter1977]

You sat with Ed and interviewed him in 1982. I did the same with Ed in November 1980. I was a writer at my college newspaper in Oregon and Ed came to town to give a speech and to promote his new novel Good News. I sat down with Ed for about half an hour, maybe a bit more. All recorded on cassette tape and then transcribed to print and published. Alongside my own story of my recent pilgrimage to Arches. I sent the clippings to Ed at his Oracle PO box; he sent me one of his famous "postcards" in return. I still have that postcard tucked inside my copy of Postcards From Ed. The cassette of my interview, alas, has been lost forever.

[@EricTemple]

I still have one of his postcards somewhere. It's a treasure. I did manage to save this interview when I left the TV station, but another day that I spent filming him in Bisbee was lost. Glad you got to meet him. It certainly was a big deal for me.

[@bluecircleofsquares]

now you tell me?

[@kaninma7237]

He would be glad that Glen Canyon is emerging again. Soon climate change will make that damned damn obsolete. Locals need to work on renewable energy, and they need to seek water solutions that exclude capitalists. Agribusiness consumes abut 80 percent of the water. How can it be done more efficiently and without obscene profits going to investors who do nothing. Hayduke lives!

[@yogiblair22]

Imagine if Abbey could be around to see what’s become of the Democratic Party in the 2020s

[@Shieldmaiden313]

Imagine what he'd think about how much more loony the far right has become!!!!

[@pogadhmhoneanderson4823]

Would Edward Abbey was alive today - how he would fulminate re the fiasco and devastation of the trump presidency.

[@antjack2602]

Pogadh'M'Hone Anderson Yea I don’t think so. He was no liberal and advocated for strict immigration for the sake of the American environment. Do you even actually read abbey?

[@blankspott4467]

@@antjack2602 Exactly.

[@blankspott4467]

Abbey would TRULY LOVE Trump on some levels and hate him on others, but bottom line, you're just another bleating NPC saying its lines that doesn't know what it is bleating about.

[@mma1st105]

Would he love how he dismantled the EPA? Or how he talked about clean coal lol? Lol Trump is no friend to this planet. Get real