libs vs cons = urbans vs rurals
Nov. 17th, 2004 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retro_eidasThis is kind of a random entry, but I thought this article was interesting... and I also wanted to prove I'm still alive (just annoyingly preoccupied).
It may seem rather obvious already, but I think a lot of points it makes, especially for liberals, are spot on.
Thusly, when the zealot right wings like Rush or Ann Coulter come out on the radio blithering on about the "liberal" elite, they're really saying, "urban" elite. A diatribe, I feel, a lot of these rural citizens of the diehard Red were and are fully willing to embrace. It's a trait that's always been there. It's become so prominent of late, because this government wantonly promotes that pre-existant fear of the "urban" way of life. Fear of the outside world, which might sound cliche, but has a basis of truth, at least how I see it. Aggravated further by the government's handling of 9/11 and the war in Iraq. A fear of the urban, but also a fear of "terrorism".... which in some rural parts, could very well be melding into one in the same (them city folks terrorizing us simple rurals with their fast talkin', sexual deviance and general heathenistic mentality, blah blah). The neo-conservatives have practically gone out and said it, "Democrats promote terrorism". "A vote for Kerry is a vote for Terror". In other words, city-dwellers promote terrorism. Keep your children safe by keeping those frightening (socially diverse) urban ideals far, far away. "Look away, look away, look away Dixieland".
The above is every day here in Nebraska, even if I live in a more urban populace. Why? Because Nebraska as a whole is hopelessly rural. It's isolated. It's stuck in a sort of tunnel effect... and the Republican noise machine is a lot louder and a lot more accessible (via radio and local television, all broadband and free) than anything else. You have to make a conscious effort to go out and look for other opinions or go out and experience other ways of life. Which isn't a necessarily easy or economically accessible task. Go to any corner of the state and you still have at least a 4 to 6 hour drive to the nearest urban (aka, predominantly "blue") area. In the town I grew up in, there's only been cable internet access for about two years and a lot of folks still can't afford it. Hell, a lot of people don't even have cable television, much less internet. There's also still not quite that much of a basic need to know how to use a computer. With the tunnel effect and the general lack of access to (or lack of interest in accessing) information, you'll get bombarded with both the rural mindset and ultra-conservatism from pretty much all corners *from birth*. With that much weighing on the average Nebraskan, it's no wonder the state almost always goes red across the board and has for decades.
It also makes sense that for someone like myself, who's been born and raised in a resoundingly and hopelessly rural Red state, is still very liberal. I've always been liberal. This is in part thanks to my perpetually liberal-thinking parents, but also my more "urban" outlook on life. My parents encouraged me to travel. However, not only travel, but to understand these other cultures. Not just suck up their resources, stick to the "English-only", five-star sectors or buy the plastic trinkets at the airport. They encouraged me to learn other languages. I've lived in a few big cities over my life which not only taught me about social diversity, but allowed me to experience it for myself... and, shocking, there's really nothing to be afraid of. I don't have that same degree of perpetual underlying fear of or isolation from the outside as many of my fellow Nebraskans unfortunately do.
I'd like to think this surge of theocracy and isolationism is on reaching it's apex and will soon run out of steam. A last ditch effort by the Repugs and Fundies to desperately keep hold of what they have to know full well they can't hold onto forever (try as they might). Much thanks to the inevitable ever-changing world around them. Of course, the more change fights against them, the more they resist, the louder and more stubborn they get. The harder they embrace their values. When people (mostly youth) are more willing and able to access a greater range of information. When urban life starts expanding further into the rural areas. Change will come. However, in order for this expansion of knowledge and urban prosperity to happen in the first place... there must be economic and social growth. Which isn't really happening in this country as it currently stands. We're rather stagnant at the moment, even degenerating in a way. We're living through this mess of a war and a government that seems to be determined in changing the whole country into Nebraska. When history dictates what they're doing... it spits in the face of all logic. Not even Nebraska is going to stay so Nebraska forever. In order to progress, you need to push forward... not hopelessly repeat past mistakes.
It may seem rather obvious already, but I think a lot of points it makes, especially for liberals, are spot on.
From Urban Archipelago
If Democrats and urban residents want to combat the rising tide of red that threatens to swamp and ruin this country, we need a new identity politics, an urban identity politics, one that argues for the cities, uses a rhetoric of urban values, and creates a tribal identity for liberals that's as powerful and attractive as the tribal identity Republicans have created for their constituents.
Thusly, when the zealot right wings like Rush or Ann Coulter come out on the radio blithering on about the "liberal" elite, they're really saying, "urban" elite. A diatribe, I feel, a lot of these rural citizens of the diehard Red were and are fully willing to embrace. It's a trait that's always been there. It's become so prominent of late, because this government wantonly promotes that pre-existant fear of the "urban" way of life. Fear of the outside world, which might sound cliche, but has a basis of truth, at least how I see it. Aggravated further by the government's handling of 9/11 and the war in Iraq. A fear of the urban, but also a fear of "terrorism".... which in some rural parts, could very well be melding into one in the same (them city folks terrorizing us simple rurals with their fast talkin', sexual deviance and general heathenistic mentality, blah blah). The neo-conservatives have practically gone out and said it, "Democrats promote terrorism". "A vote for Kerry is a vote for Terror". In other words, city-dwellers promote terrorism. Keep your children safe by keeping those frightening (socially diverse) urban ideals far, far away. "Look away, look away, look away Dixieland".
The above is every day here in Nebraska, even if I live in a more urban populace. Why? Because Nebraska as a whole is hopelessly rural. It's isolated. It's stuck in a sort of tunnel effect... and the Republican noise machine is a lot louder and a lot more accessible (via radio and local television, all broadband and free) than anything else. You have to make a conscious effort to go out and look for other opinions or go out and experience other ways of life. Which isn't a necessarily easy or economically accessible task. Go to any corner of the state and you still have at least a 4 to 6 hour drive to the nearest urban (aka, predominantly "blue") area. In the town I grew up in, there's only been cable internet access for about two years and a lot of folks still can't afford it. Hell, a lot of people don't even have cable television, much less internet. There's also still not quite that much of a basic need to know how to use a computer. With the tunnel effect and the general lack of access to (or lack of interest in accessing) information, you'll get bombarded with both the rural mindset and ultra-conservatism from pretty much all corners *from birth*. With that much weighing on the average Nebraskan, it's no wonder the state almost always goes red across the board and has for decades.
It also makes sense that for someone like myself, who's been born and raised in a resoundingly and hopelessly rural Red state, is still very liberal. I've always been liberal. This is in part thanks to my perpetually liberal-thinking parents, but also my more "urban" outlook on life. My parents encouraged me to travel. However, not only travel, but to understand these other cultures. Not just suck up their resources, stick to the "English-only", five-star sectors or buy the plastic trinkets at the airport. They encouraged me to learn other languages. I've lived in a few big cities over my life which not only taught me about social diversity, but allowed me to experience it for myself... and, shocking, there's really nothing to be afraid of. I don't have that same degree of perpetual underlying fear of or isolation from the outside as many of my fellow Nebraskans unfortunately do.
I'd like to think this surge of theocracy and isolationism is on reaching it's apex and will soon run out of steam. A last ditch effort by the Repugs and Fundies to desperately keep hold of what they have to know full well they can't hold onto forever (try as they might). Much thanks to the inevitable ever-changing world around them. Of course, the more change fights against them, the more they resist, the louder and more stubborn they get. The harder they embrace their values. When people (mostly youth) are more willing and able to access a greater range of information. When urban life starts expanding further into the rural areas. Change will come. However, in order for this expansion of knowledge and urban prosperity to happen in the first place... there must be economic and social growth. Which isn't really happening in this country as it currently stands. We're rather stagnant at the moment, even degenerating in a way. We're living through this mess of a war and a government that seems to be determined in changing the whole country into Nebraska. When history dictates what they're doing... it spits in the face of all logic. Not even Nebraska is going to stay so Nebraska forever. In order to progress, you need to push forward... not hopelessly repeat past mistakes.
