I have a lot to say about this topic. Not long ago I let some pretty awesome urban decay and decamped to a red state. I have been agog at the differences but I am trying to merely focus on one aspect that I just cannot understand.
So now I am in daily contact with a whole lot of America's "heartland" dwellers and I gotta say: It does not compute.
The people I am living among want to do nothing, learn nothing, go nowhere. Why? Are they suffering from a lack of curiosity? Are they satisfied? Are they stupid? I just don't know.
The other day I was speaking to a 27 year old guy who, by all rights, is doing pretty well. He has been nowhere. Ever. And it seems that he is cool with that. I was urging him to take some time off and go someplace - any place. And all I got from him was a blank, uncomfortable stare.
My wife is from here, so I asked her. She said that anybody inclined to do so - imbued with the intellectual curiosity to wonder about the rest of the world - already bailed and made their way someplace more interesting. She says the ones that are still here will die here, never knowing the slightest thing about the rest of the world but what will fit on the front of a mesh-back gimme-hat.
Has rural America always been this sociologically retarded?
