urban cattle

URBAN CATTLE

What makes the city so attractive to so many people? It isn't just the availability of jobs. People in small towns have connections, built over a lifetime, and while there isn't the same kind of job market as the city they know people who know people who can get them some kind of work. Even if there is a long commute, the low cost of living compared to the urban hive pays for that commute. Even if it is local and part time, they can survive on that, also. If they want to. Something attracts people to the city, besides work.

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I'm not necessarily speaking of those born in the city, who have connections there also. In that case, only knowing the concrete jungle probably means you wouldn't be attracted to real vegetation and wildlife, far out of your comfort zone. You don't hear about all that many folks leaving the city ( not lifelong urban dwellers ) as compared to those attracted to them. Not the job aspect, as much as the lifestyle or cultural difference. They don't like fellow small town folks in their business, gossiping about them. They want a “wordly” education.

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They want excitement. Now, to be clear, I've lived in small towns growing up, mostly outside of that small town in the boonies. I only lived in the bigger cities for about ten years, chasing enough dollars to pay off Bitch From Hell Baby Momma. I'm prejudice against larger cities, seeing only teeming crowds, hostile “OH-pressed minorities”, stink and rudeness. To me, what city folk want is silly, and pointless. But I'm trying to be as neutral as possible here as I strive to understand these people. Me? I've thought the smaller the town, the more secure. Others must chaff under the microscope.

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I can see how some people just want to be left alone. I see friends and surrogate family ( or just family ) providing a safety net for you, in a small town. They might know everything about you, know everything you do, but they also know all that and so can protect you. You are one of them. And the folks they don't know, they all watch very carefully. You are protected by the group, and from those NOT of the group. Yet, some people don't like that. It feels smothering rather than protective.

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And what does the city offer them? The glorious chance to be left the hell alone, without the need to be a hermit. We are social animals. We need a herd, most of us. Some can get that visiting others daily, others want to leave well enough alone with a once a month visit. City folks would not make good hermits. They want MORE solitude, but it isn't from hating and avoiding people. It is under their control, and they can adjust as needed. To them, solitude is needed in hourly rather than weekly amounts.

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We all need both other people and a respite from them. Some people are such extroverts they need people even as they fled from them, but those are some weird bastards. They are deathly afraid of being AWAY from people. How natural is that? But, anyway, the main attraction of the city ( again, culturally and psychologically, leaving the employment question aside ) is that you can still socialize, but without those other people being so far up your ass you can't feel free to be your own person, or do your own thing.

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You feel unjust expectations to perform to other people's standards, in a small town. And sometimes you just hated some people so much that just being in the same town as them gave you anxiety every time you went out ( think, ex-spouses for instance ). What if the cool kids harassed you all through school? Would you want to continue living in a small town with them your whole life? The only gratification to you would be when their beauty faded or their muscles atrophied and they lost what they relied on to be special. But that would be small comfort. Sometimes, people who want to ignore you are the best company.

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To accept the shallow social existence of the city, surrounded by people but always alone, friendships more like acquaintances, you really have to hate small towns. This new reality is better than the old one. Neither was good, this one is just less worse. And I think I would include most suburbs in this analysis, now so crowded that they feel just like a city. Not as bad, obviously. You don't have Tyrone and his disadvantaged youth friends asking for a reparations tax, at gunpoint. The suburbs are even more alienating and lonely than the city, with no social venues.

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But the suburbs are just that much less dangerous to be more attractive than they should be. That is one thing Kunstler doesn't dare touch on. One of the main reasons people move to a home that offers no socialization, no nearby services and requires an unnatural dependence on the automobile is because men don't want their wives to be raped by OtherColors in the city, and their children to be jumped by gangs in the schools. That is all on his beloved Democrat party. Republicans screwed us on Jobs To Latino's ( and overseas Asians ), but Democrats made our country unsafe.

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This is a huge reason for recommending the countryside over the city for a retreat, although that is a subject I'm slowly moving my way forward to. Right now, it is important to understand why so many people WANT, not just need, but desire, to move to and/or stay in the city. Not just jobs, not just the insecurity of moving in this era of high unemployment ( The Donald, who never met a poor person he had a problem lying to to make money, tells you unemployment is 4%. The Shadow Stats guy says 20%. I say 38%, but a lot of those folks are in the black market or on welfare. Splitting the difference with Shadow Dude gives you a higher rate than during the 1930”s Depression ).

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The mental state that rewards remaining urban. I can “prove” to you that I am right, about the imminent danger of the collapse of civilization, but you'll ignore me because every day you are better off than country folk. To be fair, I don't listen to people trying to prove to me how dangerous the countryside is either, as my mind is made up. Logic is about the furthest state from our reality as you can get. No matter how we lie to ourselves, we are emotional beings. We only confirmation bias. The only thing we can do is try to see a little clearer how irrational we are, and try to change that. Don't EVER kid yourself how clear you are seeing reality. NONE of us do. You can only see better how you are not seeing reality.

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Make sense? Probably not. Don't worry, continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

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