Country Smarts

I read an interesting statistic the other day that 17 percent of the people in this country live in 50 percent on the area of this country. I think that means that most of the people in this country live in urban areas. That’s too bad.

It’s always dangerous to generalize based on your experiences, but after a year spent in Fannin County I believe that the United States would be a much better place if the majority of the population lived in small towns. I have found the vast majority of the people in Fannin County―natives and newcomers alike―to be decent, friendly, caring, honest, tolerant, smart and hard-working. They value community and family, believe in their country and possess the traditional values that made America great. They lack the cynicism, coldness, and isolation that I saw all too much while living in the Tampa Bay area.

The perception that people living in rural areas are unsophisticated and uneducated rubes is completely wrong. The belief that people in urban areas are smarter and more sophisticated than country people had its start in a bygone era when rural life was much more isolated than it is today. But that was 100 years ago in the age of steam trains and the telegraph. After World War II the isolation of rural America was largely a thing of the past.

Today I can hop in my car and be in downtown Atlanta in two hours. I have access to the same movies, books, and newspapers that people living in a city have. In this age of cable television, the internet and mass media, people in the country are no more isolated from world events, modern culture and contemporary ideas and mores than people in suburbia or the inner city. The fact that they may not embrace some of the ideas and behavior that pass for normalcy in urban areas does not mean they are backward. It means they have chosen a different way. Personally, I think it means that they are smarter. 

Let’s look at education. Students in Fannin County have to attend 12 years of primary education just like students elsewhere. The textbooks they read and the core courses they take are the same as in urban counties and, I suspect, pretty much the same as those used by students in most other states. Their teachers have to possess the same degree of education (a college degree) and undergo the same certification process as urban school teachers. I recently heard the statistics about the number of teachers in Fannin County who have or are seeking advanced degrees. I don’t remember what the percentage was, but it was impressive. Rural students have to take the same tests as urban students to get into college. Most urban schools would kill to have the graduation and college placement rates that Fannin County High School has.

Even for those students who do not go on to college, I would argue that they derive more benefit and knowledge from their education than urban students do, and I attribute this to the traditional values which so many possess in this area as well as to the quality of teaching here. So the idea of that people living in urban areas are sharper and smarter than people living in rural areas is hogwash. And if you’re from the city and don’t understand that word, it means the idea that you’re smarter and better than country folk is bullshit.

Also hogwash is the idea that people living in urban areas are more sophisticated than people living in rural areas. I can’t prove it but I suspect that the percentage of people who do not appreciate “high brow” art and culture is the same in urban areas as in rural areas. Most people in the city do not listen to classical music, attend the ballet or read poetry. Nah, they watch wrestling, football and reality TV, eat barbeque and drink domestic beer and root for their home teams just like folks in rural areas.

I hesitate to even use the concept of “high brow” art and culture. The idea that some art and culture is superior to other art and culture is pure crap. The fact that you like classical music and I like bluegrass or you go to the ballet and I watch clogging competitions doesn’t mean that you are more sophisticated or more intelligent than me. It simply means that we have different tastes. I’ll go further than that. The fact you don’t appreciate a tight four part harmony over a bluegrass banjo means that you’re the one with the problem, not me.

Even the idea of sophistication is bogus. The primary definition of sophistication refers to character, ideas, tastes and ways that result from education and worldly experience. So that means that sophistication is simply a lifestyle. I’m not sure why anyone would want to be sophisticated when you look at the secondary definitions of the word: (a) a change from the natural character or simplicity; (b) complexity, as in design or organization; (c) impairment or debasement, as of purity or genuineness; and (d) the use of sophistry as in a sophism, quibble or a fallacious argument. Let me get this right. To be sophisticated means I’ve changed from my normal character, abandoned simplicity for complexity, become impaired or debased in purity and genuineness, make false arguments and quibble a lot. Boy, I think that from now on I’m going to stay the hell away from sophisticated people. They sound like they’re a pain in the ass and not a lot of fun.

So if you’re from somewhere else and you think you’re better than the folks around here, you’re not only wrong, but you’re an idiot and we don’t want you here because you’ll bring down the class curve. Just keep on driving through and look for your little slice of heaven in Detroit or Compton or Jersey City. Just leave us country folk alone.