Michael
Nov 25th 2008, 04:38 PM
In American lore, the small town is the archetypal community, a state of grace from which city dwellers have fallen (thus capitulating to all sorts of political ills like, say, socialism). Even among die-hard New Yorkers, those who could hardly imagine a life anywhere else, you’ll find people who secretly harbor nostalgia for the small village they’ve never known.
Yet the picture of cities—and New York in particular—that has been emerging from the work of social scientists is that the people living in them are actually less lonely. Rather than driving people apart, large population centers pull them together, and as a rule tend to possess greater community virtues than smaller ones. This, even though cities are consistently, overwhelmingly, places where people are more likely to live on their own.
Source (http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Alone+Together&expire=&urlID=32648542&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fnews%2Ffeatures%2F524 50%2F&partnerID=73272)
Like just about everything else that passes for 'conventional wisdom' in modern society, the old trope that small towns are full of community and large urban centers are lonely and alienating places, turns out to be bunk. Reality is quite the opposite once one takes the effort to study the issue methodically.
This is something I've always instinctively felt. Growing up in the suburbs was indeed a lonely and alienating experience. Living most of my life in the middle of a large city, I can't imagine wanting to live anywhere else. If one is lonely living in a big city, it is because one choose to be lonely.
I find this topic to be an increasingly important one since by all calculations, city living is less damaging to the environment, less wasteful of precious energy resources and overall, more beneficial to human spirit and community. But all our public policies are setup on the opposite assumption. We spend huge sums of tax money to subsidize sprawling suburbs and sparsely populated rural areas - at the expense of the city dwelling taxpayers.
The large amount of 'propaganda' about the virtues of rural or small town living is just that - propaganda. And with our present energy and environmental problems, this propaganda is becoming increasingly foolish and expensive - continuing to convince people to make poor lifestyle choices based on propaganda that doesn't have their best interests at heart. Teaching people that small towns are paradise and large cities are evil is not just a lie, it is bad public policy.
Yet the picture of cities—and New York in particular—that has been emerging from the work of social scientists is that the people living in them are actually less lonely. Rather than driving people apart, large population centers pull them together, and as a rule tend to possess greater community virtues than smaller ones. This, even though cities are consistently, overwhelmingly, places where people are more likely to live on their own.
Source (http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Alone+Together&expire=&urlID=32648542&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fnews%2Ffeatures%2F524 50%2F&partnerID=73272)
Like just about everything else that passes for 'conventional wisdom' in modern society, the old trope that small towns are full of community and large urban centers are lonely and alienating places, turns out to be bunk. Reality is quite the opposite once one takes the effort to study the issue methodically.
This is something I've always instinctively felt. Growing up in the suburbs was indeed a lonely and alienating experience. Living most of my life in the middle of a large city, I can't imagine wanting to live anywhere else. If one is lonely living in a big city, it is because one choose to be lonely.
I find this topic to be an increasingly important one since by all calculations, city living is less damaging to the environment, less wasteful of precious energy resources and overall, more beneficial to human spirit and community. But all our public policies are setup on the opposite assumption. We spend huge sums of tax money to subsidize sprawling suburbs and sparsely populated rural areas - at the expense of the city dwelling taxpayers.
The large amount of 'propaganda' about the virtues of rural or small town living is just that - propaganda. And with our present energy and environmental problems, this propaganda is becoming increasingly foolish and expensive - continuing to convince people to make poor lifestyle choices based on propaganda that doesn't have their best interests at heart. Teaching people that small towns are paradise and large cities are evil is not just a lie, it is bad public policy.