It's the oldest divide in human history. No, it's not race or religion, although they have resulted in many bloody conflicts over the years. No, the oldest, most persistent divide in human history has been the split between rural and urban. Ever since the advent of agriculture enabled some to raise the crops and others to congregate in cities, the resentment between the two groups has dominated human culture.
I had a friend tell me she and her daughter went to the movies last weekend, and I asked what they saw. The movie she mentioned was one I had not heard of. That surprised me because I'm usually a pretty attuned person as to what movies were coming out. It was Forever My Girl, a movie about a country music star who, after touring and adopting big city ways, returns to his small town home. There he rediscovers love and the homespun charms of rural life. And no, this movie has not been a big box office hit. But it's played well in our rural area, running for the second week, and even though the critics rate it only about 20%, the audience that did see it rated it at 90%.
For all the Hollywood glitz, the superiority of rural life over city life is a common theme in our entertainment. Even in our science fiction and fantasy movies, it is about rural forces fighting back against a corrupt central force. Whether it is the outlying, less settled planets of Star Wars rebelling against the large centralized Empire, or Katniss organizing the rural districts to challenge the authoritarian Capitol in The Hunger Games, many of our entertainments represent the struggle between urban and rural. And yes, there are also themes of the urban dweller suddenly lost in a backward and violent rural hell (think of Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as two extreme examples of this).
It is much more than just our entertainment choices. It has dominated our politics, virtually since the formation of our union. The Jeffersonian Democrat and Federalist divide was primarily one of agrarian farmers versus urban merchants. The Civil War pitted the agrarian South against an industrialized North. The turn of the 20th century saw the increasingly centralized banking and concentrated wealth of the country lead to a great divide of monetary policy, with the frequent Presidential contender from rural Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan, demanding the urban forces not to crucify the rural backbone of America "upon a cross of gold." And on and on it has gone throughout our country's history.
At present, this divide screams in our voting patterns. In many states, congressional districts have been gerrymandered to protect rural interests. Even cities in the reddest states vote blue. Statewide races often depend on what area maximizes the most turnout. That is why some states have declared war on voter registration, to help ensure that their block of voters keeps the edge.
The irony is that neither rural nor urban is superior. They both have their virtues and their flaws. Although I have lived in small towns most of my life, I still enjoy visiting cities like Atlanta, New York City, Portland and others, for the many amenities that they offer. Would I like to live there? I don't know. I have grown used to the "big fish in a small pond" feel of a more rural life. The urbanest environment I lived in, the University of Michigan, I kind of got swallowed up and lost.
Both areas suffer from the scourge of drugs and violence. Urban areas deal with crack and gangs. Rural areas are ravaged by the opioid crisis and gun violence (mass shootings, domestic shootings, gun accidents, suicides, blight all sections of the country). Both areas often suffer from lack of decent employment paying a living wage.
And yet, we have been set on edge against other. Part of this is our own doing, but part of it is what our politicians and media have done to us. We need to reweave ourselves, understand that both rural and urban are vital to what really makes this country great.
Fighting the history of this division seems a bit overwhelming. But the pace of life, and the tremendous problems before us, makes it necessary that we find a way to come together. It may not be easy, but I have faith that we can join forces and tackle what we need to.
If we want to survive, we may not have any other choice.
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