I moved from LA to a town of 2,300 people — here were the biggest culture shocks I faced in small-town America
Some niggles: 1. "There were a lot of cultural differences I noticed immediately after moving from the most sprawling city in the US to a town of a couple thousand people." Sorry but the LA metropolitan area is the most compact/dense urban area in the nation, it does not sprawl. This is yet another lie manufactured by the authoritarian left along with Socialism is good and fun. 2. "Not to sound cynical, but my time in Los Angeles made me a little skeptical of the kindness of strangers. Scammers on the street would try to sucker you into handing over money at every corner. And I remember discussions about how inviting a certain person to a party would be good because that person had pull with a certain actor or writer. It felt like almost everybody had an agenda. A week after we moved to our new home in the mountains, my wife and I were trying to lug a very large couch out of a local store. A guy walked up and offered to help. I accepted, and he lifted and carried it out with a smile the whole time. Once he'd gotten it to the truck I reached in my pocket for some bills and he waved his hand — "Naw man, I just like helping people," he said. I eyed him suspiciously for about a minute, trying to figure out his angle. My wife and I have been pulled out of snowbanks, drifts, and ditches at least half a dozen times by people just driving by. Most recently I was pulled out by a guy in a tractor who was plowing a road I hadn't realized was not county-maintained. On top of the fact that he pulled me out and pulled out the car behind me, he was taking a few hours out of his morning to clear a road of snow despite the fact that he had no responsibility to do so. Needless to say, it was very different from what I had experienced in the big city." Dude, did you miss the memo? The city was a mistake, a very bad, no good, terrible mistake which makes humans much more evil, self-centered, and venal. The suburbs and better but it is the rural areas where we can live full lives, helping others in a community where caring matters. It's almost like no one saw A Bugs Life, or understood the morals behind the story! Or The Magnificent Seven, or Seven Samurai. We've become a society of people so poorly educated we cannot understand how to interpret even the simplest of events or lessons. 3. "This was a tough one for a man who grew up in Baltimore and then lived in Los Angeles, but where I live now, few people lock their houses. Many cars are left unlocked, even on the main street in town. People leave their duffels with their wallets and phones in open-air cubbies in the locker room at the gym. It took me a while to realize how guarded I had been walking the streets of downtown Los Angeles, or even going to my local gym. Thankfully, when it comes to crime in my new hometown, public drunkenness is typically the worst thing people hear about in the police blotter." Burglars might get shot in a town like Victor, Idaho, not because the people there are bad, but because they view themselves as self-reliant and the first line of defense in a burglary or home invasion situation. This fact gets around and the bad guys move along to the big cities where the pickings are easier, and the sheeple unarmed. 4. "I still remember one of my first big culture shocks: when I saw a picture from the local high school basketball team on the front page of the daily paper. I used to read the nationally-minded LA Times. Now my local paper, the Jackson Hole News & Guide, runs stories about the debate team. The issues people care about here are different than those in the city. Stories about land usage, grazing rights, and the Bureau of Land Management are hot-button topics over here, while they may not register with my friends in coastal cities." City types worry about crap that doesn't matter - impeachment anyone. While the people in small towns and rural areas are focused on their community and how people are succeeding, or failing and how they can be aided or helped. 5. "I grew up with two extremely anti-gun former hippies as parents. I never shot a gun until I was 30. But given our regular interactions with dangerous wildlife in the Tetons, and the popularity of hunting throughout the region, it felt like a necessity to have a gun, which is why I own one today. I was surprised to find that shooting is, well, fun." Welcome to planet earth, alien, enjoy your stay! Of course, shooting is fun. It requires skill, practice, patience, and technique. These are all things people love to engage in because they can become better at these tasks and with even moderately routine practice, they can become better fast. "While many restaurants may tout the ethical source of their meats, no meat is more free-range, organically fed, or responsibly sourced than game meat. I discovered that most hunters around here have high respect for local wildlife — much more than visitors I've observed crowding a poor moose and calf to get a picture, for example." Mangia! 6. "In the city, it was easy to fall into the cycle of bar/restaurant/shopping/pool. Up here, you're forced to spend time in nature for fun and socializing." The city was a mistake. It is also a highly limited monoculture, and deeply boring. The city is for extraverts who have no life, and are fearful of anything more wild than a Cosmopolitan in a glitz bar that looks pretty much like all the other glitzy bars. How novel. 7. "I've heard a lot of people in my town say they love visiting vibrant, cultured cities, but "can't stand all the people." I can understand their discomfort. There are fewer people here than on some city blocks in LA. You have a lot of time to be alone with your thoughts up here, and if you have issues with crowds and the bustle of busy boulevards, this is a great place. Acre lots are pretty standard in neighborhoods. You can always find parking, traffic is minimal, and there's a real sense of "we're all in this together" even if we're all more separated. On the other hand, there are fewer social events here, especially in the winter. And many people in small towns have had their friends for years, so it can take a while to build strong relationships, whereas in cities people are usually more interested in networking and trying to expand their social groups. Still, within a few years you begin to feel like you know everybody. Small towns can be more intimate and also more isolating than cities, and it was shocking to adjust to that." What he means by networking is that people in cities are more interested in using you for some benefit, social, financial, job, or other. People in small towns and rural areas befriend you because they wish to know you as a friend, not to use you for some selfish purpose. The friendships made in small towns are completely different than friendships developed in cities. The rest of the article is just as funny, it's like an alien has come to Earth and is goggling at the humans and our odd behaviors. The only advice I have is, leave your leftist progressive voting proclivities in LA, they are the reason you are leaving after all.
Comments
|
AuthorMaddog Categories
All
|