The Battle For America...Country Mouse Versus City Mouse
By Ron Marr (12/06/03)
There is no question we live in a divided nation. Although the red and blue map of the 2000 election illustrated this trend, further evidence is gained by merely listening. Contrary to what supplicants of the nanny state espouse, the American schism does not arise from racial grievance or the fractious relationship between political parties.
Hardly. It is a conflict of philosophy between urban and rural, a simmering antagonism between those who wish to care for themselves and those who seek cradle to grave oversight. It is a war between reality and fantasy.
It is pathetic to listen to the voices of those incapable of enduring life's simple tasks. They are so accustomed to having all their needs fulfilled they have lost the ability for original thought. Shovel the walk or plow their own street? Oh no...that's the government's job. Is there a rabid skunk at the back door? Hide in the house and call animal control. Save for retirement? Why? We have Social Security.
Not all urban residents live or believe in such a manner, but many do. Moreover, they are not only America's leading purveyors of the status quo, but as well the greatest provocateurs of hatred. Incapable of self-sufficiency, they mirror the conventional wisdom of an elitist media. To them it is a hate crime to make the slightest ethnic sneer, yet is a fine joke to revile the hicks and rubes who live in "flyover country."
If you live away from a city you are stupid. If you would rather go bowling than travel to an art gallery you are crude. If you believe government wields too heavy a hand you are a radical militia member. If you lack wealth or social status you are beneath contempt and should have no say in society's future. If you don't wear the latest fashions you are backwards. If you fail to believe as THEY believe you are a bigot.
Interesting how the most intolerant section of our populace continuously preaches tolerance. It is hypocrisy at its finest, diplomacy at the end of a gun barrel. Or at least it would be if not for the widespread urban terror of anything with a trigger.
Rural residents may be isolated geographically, but many urban residents are isolated intellectually. They have NO idea what goes on outside their city, borough or subdivision. And yet they feel a manifest destiny to tell others how to manage an environment that they have seen only from the confines of a cozy vacation cabin or a luxurious ski resort.
This is why many urbanites are outraged that George Bush signed the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, geared toward preventing the devastating wildfires that have ravaged the west for near a decade.
To the urban dweller, the forests should be left untouched. Bambi should live in peace. Having never experienced the danger zones firsthand (I've spent 12 years in them) they don't care about the utter destruction arising from mismanagement. They don't care that the build-up of undergrowth steals vital nutrients, that it draws insects which kill more trees, that the wood simply rots, that jobs are lost, that ways of life are destroyed, that people fall into poverty due to the wishes of those who believe the health of a tree more important than the health of a person. They don't care if the hicks and rubes burn to death...they only know that the evil lumber companies might make a profit and that Mother Oak would cry at the burn of a chainsaw.
We have seen too well how urban residents and politicians view Sierra Club votes as far more valuable than our homes and lives. No surprise to us then, when the homes of urban dwellers went up in flames (as happened last fall in southern California) the elitists cried for something to be done. It was ok when the hicks and rubes were losing everything, but not ok when it's them. Funny how the politicians withheld support from proper management when only those states with few electoral votes were burning to the ground. Funny how they were outraged when the "make or break" states began suffering tragedy.
Rural residents realize just how deeply they are held in contempt by urban elitists, feel the condescending and superior manner of coastal snobs to be rude and ignorant. They are justifiably angry, and have supported George Bush because he is one of the few who has addressed some of their needs. But Bush's willingness to consider the opinions of the two opposing sides is hardly enough to bridge the massive chasm between the sensible and the senseless.
I suspect that gulf can never be bridged...for those who live in reality have no desire to visit fantasy land.
And those in fantasy land will never leave their false reality, a fairy tale destined to one day go up in flames.
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