J.D. Vance: Hillbilly-Elegy
Again and again I had heard how impressive this book was supposed to be. Once it was highly praised; another time, a reviewer claimed that he had tears in his eyes while reading the personal story of J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy. So, I curiously checked to see whether the local city library had the book available. It did. Apparently, others had also heard of this “must-read,” as I initially landed on the waiting list. Then, just in time for my summer vacation, I received the message that the book had arrived and was ready for pick-up. I began reading it right in the airport waiting area. Admittedly, my expectations were already quite high, and now I was curious to see whether J.D. would be able to meet them. What I had seen and heard so far from this “hillbilly” and now Vice President of the United States had done little to convince me. His presumptuous and cringeworthy behavior during the visit of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to the White House had particularly shaped my image of J.D. Vance — and not in a good way. So, I was curious to hear what this “hillbilly” had to say.
Childhood in a Dysfunctional Family
Both Vance’s childhood and teenage years were marked by everything that characterizes a toxic family life: violence, drugs, alcohol, poverty, and his mother’s constantly changing partners. There is no father figure in the true sense of the word. His mother repeatedly separates from her partners, playing a constant game of musical chairs. His biological father himself shows little interest in him; only as a teenager does Vance establish closer contact with him again. When his mother’s excesses become too much, he flees to his grandparents. They ultimately become his anchor in life.
Problems at school and a tendency toward violence are consequences of this adolescence. His unstable environment — characterized by a lack of willingness to work and a tendency to blame others for its misery — does not help Vance form a positive outlook on life.
Nonetheless, he turns things around when he decides to join the Marines after high school to get the proper discipline in preparation for university. After four years of the “hard school,” he then attends college — and not just any college, but Yale, one of the so-called Ivy League universities in the U.S. With the support of one of his professors, his ascent begins. And we now all know where his contact with the notorious U.S. billionaire Peter Thiel ultimately led.
Lessons from Childhood
The book’s blurb describes it as “gripping, moving, intelligent.” Is it? I say no — no more and no less than comparable accounts of similarly unfortunate childhoods, which surely exist in large numbers around the world and still do. Just type the term “dysfunctional family” into, say, Amazon’s search bar, and you’ll get countless hits. But yes, very few of these stories end with a vice presidency or similarly high honors. Vance simply had good luck in the midst of misfortune. Throughout all his childhood misery, he repeatedly received supportive help — whether from close relatives, mentors at university, or even Peter Thiel, who apparently also encouraged him to publish his life story in book form.
One immediately wonders: What motivated Peter Thiel to push for this move?
The blurb also claims that Vance wrote “the most important political book of the year.” Maybe — but does the analysis of hillbilly mentality really explain Donald Trump’s election victory, as is often claimed?
Well, one fact is clear — and Vance describes it in great detail — the hillbillies are a type of person who like to blame others for their messed-up lives, preferably politicians in Washington. However, the author also notes that it would be better if this social group took their fate into their own hands.
The Truth Comes at the End
Toward the very end of the book, just when I was about to put it down in slight annoyance, things finally get interesting. It starts on page 254. It begins with the admission that his career was largely due to the right mentors at the right time: “I learned these things through my network” or “One of those friends invited me to an important conversation and became an important mentor […].” Then Vance goes on to talk about how formative certain childhood experiences can be for decisions made later in life, often influencing those decisions unconsciously. He refers to so-called ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) — traumatic events in childhood whose effects can last well into adulthood (if not forever). Vance cites several psychological studies that describe, among other things, the effects of constant stress in childhood. These lead to the autonomic nervous system (keyword: vagus nerve) being in a state of constant alert, scanning the environment for potential threats:
“In a child who grows up like I did, the part of the brain that processes stress and conflict is permanently activated […].” A few pages later, Vance sums it up: “But upward mobility is never a clean break, and the world I left behind always catches up with me.” Now that J.D. has almost reached the peak of the Western world (rumor has it he wants to run for U.S. President in the next election), one wonders whether he still remembers his origins — and what politics should be doing for the people of his former social class. We’ll see. Time will tell…
