The Urban, Cosmopolitan, Elitist/Middle American Divide

[JesseJB]

Everyone knows the divide exists, but no one talks about it.

You see the divide at parties, in politics, in entertainment, everywhere.

Did you grow up in the sticks only to up and leave, get an education, move to a city and lose your ability to relate to rural/suburban culture?

Thoughts?

 

[celery]

My family has constantly travelled and I've lived all sorts of places and visited even more. I've always seen myself as an international rather than an American (as I am a citizen) or a Greek (as both my parents are Greek) or Israeli (as I was born in Jerusalem).


I do love the urban environment, but at the same time I love a laid back small town feel. Not American small town, but more like Dole, France.

It really depends on the type of people I guess. People and surroundings to be more precise. In America, small town usually means "poor and uneducated" as opposed to quaint, traditional and relaxing that you might more easily find in another Country.

However, I may be ignorant to most American towns and cities as I have not been to many places in the States.

 

[RJman]

the divide is a media creation

 

[thinman]

Originally Posted by RJman

the divide is a media creation

Tell me that the next time a New Yorker refers to any (or all) of the rest of the US as "flyover country". Tell me that the next time you go to see a tractor pull.

 

[RJman]

It's a continuum.

BTW, it's not just New Yorkers who call the middle US "flyover country". Even teh Frogs refer to the "square states".

 

[Mark from Plano]

Originally Posted by RJman

It's a continuum.

BTW, it's not just New Yorkers who call the middle US "flyover country". Even teh Frogs refer to the "square states".


QED. Elitist.

 

[Dedalus]

Originally Posted by JesseJB

Did you grow up in the sticks only to up and leave, get an education, move to a city and lose your ability to relate to rural/suburban culture?

This is me, except now I am actively trying to get away from the human ant hills and go back to Indiana.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by RJman

the divide is a media creation
I agree, and as soon as Thomas Friedman can give it a catchier name, he will write a book on it. How about "the United States Is Red, Blue and Divided With Some Patches of Hot and Cold and Flatness in the Middle."

 

[RJman]

Originally Posted by iammatt

I agree, and as soon as Thomas Friedman can give it a catchier name, he will write a book on it. How about "the United States Is Red, Blue and Divided With Some Patches of Hot and Cold and Flatness in the Middle."

Hack is as hack does. I think most of us would do worse for the money.

 

[Augusto86]

Originally Posted by thinman

Tell me that the next time a New Yorker refers to any (or all) of the rest of the US as "flyover country". Tell me that the next time you go to see a tractor pull.
See a tractor pull what?

Originally Posted by Mark from Plano

QED. Elitist.
Inaccurate. They are Sometimes Square, Sometimes Rectangular, Mostly Empty States.

Originally Posted by iammatt

I agree, and as soon as Thomas Friedman can give it a catchier name, he will write a book on it. How about "the United States Is Red, Blue and Divided With Some Patches of Hot and Cold and Flatness in the Middle."
Ahh, the Moustache of Wisdom. I'm comfortable in my conviction that living in and around a cosmopolitan, urban(ish) environment and traveling a lot makes me a more broadly informed and educated person than someone who spends their whole life in a single town. On the flip side, that person probably has a much deeper knowledge of certain things than I will ever have of anything. Although you have to consider the current state of American culture. Where you once foundcosmopolitan urban elites set up against rural populations that were extremely in tune with natural rhythms, agriculture, religion, and various crafts, things have been homogeonized by suburban living, television, radio, the tubes. So I guess there are actually three categories - true urban livers, true rural livers and then a vast, geographically diffuse swath of suburban nobodies.

 

[lithium180]

This post raises a very interesting subject that is multivariate in nature, having to do with a nexus of geography, education (both personal and familial), employment, exposure to foreigners and basic social and religious personal philosophy.

I very much doubt that the divide between the educated elites of the urban coastal regions and the more recently economically-arrived middle class blue and white collar workers in the American interior is a media-manufactured phenomenon.


Here's one well written book about the subject by a noted American sociologist:

Anybody read it?

 

[JesseJB]

Originally Posted by Augusto86

So I guess there are actually three categories - true urban livers, true rural livers and then a vast, geographically diffuse swath of suburban nobodies.



After leaving the 'burbs and having gone thru higher ed I cant stand returning to the 'burbs. All I see is just people who have given up trying to do anything spectacular with their lives and I can't stand trying to make conversation with them because they have nothing to say. And I really feel sorry for the kids and teenagers that have to grow up in that lifestyle...they look so depressed.

Im an elitist jerk with latent anger for my past, I know, but I can't help how I feel!

 

[dusty]

Originally Posted by JesseJB

After leaving the 'burbs and having gone thru higher ed I cant stand returning to the 'burbs. All I see is just people who have given up trying to do anything spectacular with their lives and I can't stand trying to make conversation with them because they have nothing to say. And I really feel sorry for the kids and teenagers that have to grow up in that lifestyle...they look so depressed. Im an elitist jerk with latent anger for my past, I know, but I can't help how I feel!
I'm having a hard time imagining why living in a city gives you a fire for life while the walking dead pool in the suburbs, why the only things worth doing are done in cities, why cities instantly make you more interesting to converse with, and any other hyperbolic statements in this small post.

 

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by lithium180

This post raises a very interesting subject that is multivariate in nature, having to do with a nexus of geography, education (both personal and familial), employment, exposure to foreigners and basic social and religious personal philosophy.

I very much doubt that the divide between the educated elites of the urban coastal regions and the more recently economically-arrived middle class blue and white collar workers in the American interior is a media-manufactured phenomenon.


Here's one well written book about the subject by a noted American sociologist:

Anybody read it?
I've read it.

 

[LabelKing]

I was reading Monocle magazine today, and they were talking about the virtues of these "small towns" located mostly in Europe and parts of Japan.

As well, they were discussing the perfect apartment building as a kind of pastiche of Old-World--French--elegance, and New Yorker convenience, with such things as wall-safes, and parquet floors.

It did look compelling.