DOSSIER # 15: DE-URBANIZATION IN THE NEW CENTURY
Please note: As I am about to embark on a three week vacation to Britain and France for my honeymoon, regular Dossier’s on The War Room will not resume until I get back on September, 14 2005. Nevertheless, please keep checking as I will try to post smaller observations from café’s while I am gone. All the best.The Sunday before last, my wife and I took a drive to St. Jacob’s, a small town about an hour and a half outside Toronto. It has a large Mennonite population and plenty of farmer’s markets, crafts shops, broom makers, glass spinners, fresh cheese etc. We sat by a river, ate food and talked of the future.
St. Jacob’s is perhaps as lovely a town as one could find in Ontario, filled with warm hearted people, fresh foods and an earthy spirit. Many of the crafts vendors were replacing their summer products and one could see more than a few black witches and orange pumpkins in anticipation of the season to come.
It made me think of some of the ironies or contradictions of our ‘modern’ culture.
Now with what follows we will be making more than a few generalizations about small town life vs. big city life. I was raised in the former and currently live in the latter. I hear many comments from both sides and more than a few of the attitudes each has towards the other.
We constantly hear big city ‘evolved’ Torontonians call small town Ontarians (or Westerners) bigots, racists, homophobes, unintelligent, arrogant farmers and various other terms said with a derogatory or pejorative tone. And yet look at the irony;
‘Liberal’ or big city folk are constantly trying to get cleaner and purer air for their environment; the kind of air one routinely finds in a small town or the rural country.
They vehemently oppose the war in Iraq and all sorts of international violence but they will do nothing of merit to try to curb the very real violence happening in their own cities if it might mean asking tough questions of themselves and various demographics.
They ridicule small town people for being ‘inbred’ and ‘redneck’ while they themselves try to stave off their own ‘sophisticated’ children from getting pregnant by or impregnating a 14 year old.
Big city ‘yuppie’ types are health obsessed; they will pay top dollar to get ‘organic’ foods that are free from chemicals or corporate logos; the very same type of food that is grown in abundance and sold independently by rural farmers at the types of small town markets they look down their noses at.
Big city 'intellectual'/media types say or infer that they want a more Marxist form of government that is free of big business and allows the government to take after all. The same type of culture that exists in many small towns, free of government interference where help is usually a doorstep away and a free cup of milk or an egg is there for the asking.
They cry out for a multi-cultural, integrated society, but then culturally encourage their minorities to live in segregated parts of the city which they then visit for dinner on a Saturday night to show their friends how ‘diverse’ they are. In a smaller towns, all demographics are forced to live with each other. There are no ‘minority ghettos’.
They say they hate globalization and big corporations yet their economies and lifestyles are dependant on both and they tax small business’ to points of absurdity where only a big corporation or wealthy individual can afford to start a business. In many smaller towns, independent shops still outnumber large franchises or corporations.
Now I am not naïve, things are not all rosy and ‘Little House on the Prairie’ in many small towns, either. In some rural areas, there is a great need for more sophisticated forms of medicine and scientific treatment.
I recently went back to my hometown and as we drove along the main street, a young ‘punk’ with a clichéd mullet cut circa 1986 pulled up to us with his pick-up truck, music blaring and drove off with the tires screeching and probably fracturing at least three municipal driving by-laws in the process. I cringed. I hate it when stereotypes are true.
Obviously there can also be cases in small towns where kids who might be more eclectic are misunderstood and perhaps could better be served by living in a larger urban center. There can unfortunately also be a wariness or cruelty imposed on those deemed as ‘other’ in some small towns.
Certainly, when I was growing up, I couldn’t wait to move to the ‘bright lights’ of the big city. Now, a decade out of university and with many of my friends having children, more young families are fleeing Toronto for the suburbs or small towns in search of a community with proper values to raise their kids. Many of my friends are doing this…even ones who call themselves ‘liberal’. Only my most die-hard of New Left friends have verbally expressed a vow to raise their kids in Toronto.
Just as the last one-hundred years saw the industrialization of the cities take hold and people leaving small towns for the large urban centers, the next one-hundred years will most likely show a reverse trend. As big cities become more and more hostile to families, religion, property ownership, education and children, more people will flee them for the increasingly harder to find independence and safety of the small town.
Even if laws are passed federally to regulate them, the further from the cities people get, the harder it will be for governments to influence the lives they lead.
The main flaw of the New Left is a colossal misunderstanding of human nature.
Most people don’t want government imposed ‘equality’; they want the government to remove as many obstacles as they can to aspire.
Most individuals want a health care system that is not only about availability, but about quality and efficiency. They don’t just want free health care…they need it to be good health care. Sometimes, that can be the difference between life and death.
Most families don’t desire that their children be taught graphic depictions of sexuality as young as grade one because well-financed, special interest groups dictate it to be so; they want a school system that teaches what some might call ‘traditional’ notions of morality, decency and education.
Parents are concerned with whether or not their four year old is shot or abducted across the street when they are not looking; not whether or not President George W. Bush is the great Satan of the Western World.
Most folks desire to own their own property; not to live on property owned by the government. Similarly, the urban notion of living in cramped condos thirty stories high surrounded by concrete increasingly seems unnatural to many.
Most people believe marriage is about family, children, love and biological lineage; not property rights and tax breaks for cynical adults.
Contrary to our media culture, most people see God and Christ as a form of wisdom and guidance for the world; not as entities to be abolished, ridiculed and destroyed.
Also…and this is perhaps the most damning misunderstanding of the New Left. Most folks when left to their own free-will, actually do get along.
True racism, misogyny or homophobia-as opposed to the way many just throw around those words to silence- will always exist.
So will hatred, war, inequity, strife, poverty and hardship; but these are not values that consume the average person. No amount of government interference or social programs will ever be able change that. In fact, there has been no more horror in the world started then when governments try to pursue utopia.
That’s because it doesn’t exist…at least not in this life.
But that is one truth that many-of all party affiliations-increasingly do not want to talk about.
posted by Nicol DuMoulin @ 9:56 AM
9 Comments:
I hope you have a nice time in Britain and France. As a UK resident, I would be interested in
your impressions of the country (and France too).
Fog,
Thank you. I look forward to writing about Britain. I love British culture and am eagerly looking forward to experiencing it.
As always Nicol, brilliant and thought provoking!
St. Jacob's is such a lovely place! I really enjoy it because I can find one of a kind gifts there, which is hard since today's malls has become so boring with all the same stores.
Thank you Sharon,
I look forward to sharing my thoughts about the culture of Britain also over the next few weeks.
Actually - St. Jacobs is pretty nice. It's more of a retirement community then one filled with modern families.
The younger residents consist of *gasp* amish people.
As for Nadines dim view of rural communities not having the same education. I would tend to disagree - Hellishly early to some is early morning to others and teachers are equally as poor in cities or towns. School boards carry the same ciriculum and a BA or BEd doesn't really make a super teacher.
Smaller communities are less crime ridden than urban centers. I would take loitering over being shot at any day.
Best wishes for a safe and pleasant voyage!
Thanks for mentioning health care... I moved from Small-town Alberta to Toronto and have recently checked a sick relative into Sunnybrook Hospital (under the selfless care of the Liberal provincial government).
It's been exactly one week and so far we've been disgusted with the dirty and unsanitary conditions and been frustrated by faulty electrical equipment.
We've waited over 30 hrs in Emergency for a bed; 7 hours to have an I.V. reinstalled; and watched an elderly woman urinate on the floor after waiting for over 40 minutes for a nurse to respond to the paging system.
The generally frightening and appalling lack of communication between the staff has resulted in so many mistakes by orderlies and nurses that my family and I have decided to post someone by our relative's bed for at least 8hrs a day - this way we find that at least we can usually catch the mistakes before they happen.
But of course during those hours of protection we are paying $3.50 per half-hour, every half-hour, 24 hours a day and $7 for the cafeteria lunch special.
The few nurses that have been around long enough for me to befriend have disclosed that they don't get a discount on parking and some have been working 30 hour shifts. They shake their heads and acknowledge the decaying care before we can even mention it.
Coincidentally, my mother was here from AB visiting this "patient patient" and promptly went back for a visit to a Calgary hospital the following day. She says the difference was night and day. Under the Tory provincial government, there were nurses everywhere she turned; the facility was spotless; staff were joyful and pleasant and there was virtually no waiting time. Communication was clear, compassionate, and professional.
I don't really know what else to say, other than thanks for trying to make a change. I, for one, feel a little bit better...
LIVE FROM BRITAIN:
NDP Nadine,
Thank you for your comments.
I don't deny that there are issues with growing up in an excessively small town and I certainly think your voice and experiences are valid. I just believe that right now, we as a culture are overstating the stereotypes of the small town while understating the issues of the big city.
As far as the educational problems in small towns, again, I agree but when kids coming out of university cannot make a cogent argument and resort to base name-calling when you disagree with them, I wonder how educated they are.
Also, thank you for leaving a comment. The War Room welcomes dissent.
Les,
Yes, St. Jacob's is beautiful.
It's beauty is what inspired this latest Dossier.
Straphanger,
I am sorry for your current relative's illness. I agree our health system needs great reform. Canadians are slowly realizing this...
...but Michael Moore's new film is called "Sicko" where he will attack the Bush administration and the American health care system. He will show the Canadian system as a paragon of perfection.
After it's released in theatres, I wonder who most Canadians will agree with...the experiences of their own loved ones in the system or Michael Moore?
Yeah...I know.
I'll keep you and your loved one in my thoughts and prayers.
50 year old dad,
I agree.
I try to make The War Room more than a rant.
As such it is longer than most blogs but my goal isn't to complain...it's to explain culture and hopefully change hearts and minds. That is also why many of my Dossier's aren't just 'rants' on current events.
I hope NDP Nadine returns and if any other people read this of a different political orientation, please leave a comment.
Hopefully in the next week I will be able to have the time to post my first British Dossier.
So far I have seen Kennilworth Castle, Coventry Cathedral and William Shakespeare's birth home. All beautiful, fascinating experiences.
The first thing I realized when I got here is why Toronto will not be a world class city in our lifetime...
It lacks a sense of history and respect for its own past.
Best
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system as we are in a major crisis and health insurance is a major aspect to many.
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