This comment sent me on a deep thought train. These places are populated by those that remained, while others left and became the sophisticated urbanites that broadened their horizons. My father was one of those people that left, he left the day after his mother died and joined the military, a common enough story. He was quite the teacher, and it made me the person I am today.
My father often also pointed out those who had also left, who had also done well. There’s a selection bias there but I feel like having a mix of both a rural and urban experience is extremely helpful in human development.
Those that stay… well my father was often disappointed to hear how poorly things went out there, but with no family remaining there he never returned. Abused, poorly supported (though sometimes it seemed not for a lack of trying), with an evaporative cooling effect removing the best and brightest as they went to urban areas seeking better lives, and perhaps resentful they didn’t get to leave. The crab bucket effect is in full play as well, dragging back down many who climb but don’t get out.
In the end the remainers feel not quite unlike a medieval peasant: A prize for nobility to fight over, an accessory to the land they work, and body that can be drafted when someone threatens to take that prize away.
I grew up in one of those places. It was a town that anyone from a real city would think of as tiny, but was seen as the “Big City” in the area: population of around 35k, by far the largest in a several hour drive. I left when I graduated to go to college and have never returned from more than a holiday break to visit friends and family. Some of my friends and family left and some stayed. Everyone who stayed… well, it hasn’t worked out well for them. They all ended up with dead end jobs in a dying town, hoping for the boom times again that will never come. They’ve become bitter, paranoid, and fearful of the outside world. The last time I was there, in 2021, was so damn sad. The town is so run down, there is a bad meth problem, and everything just felt despondent. Yeah, the town has chosen to do it to themselves in a lot of ways and I wouldn’t be part of this community if I didn’t enjoy at least some schadenfreude, but I also have to wonder how will those 35000 people, and their kids, ever have a chance at a better life?
This comment sent me on a deep thought train. These places are populated by those that remained, while others left and became the sophisticated urbanites that broadened their horizons. My father was one of those people that left, he left the day after his mother died and joined the military, a common enough story. He was quite the teacher, and it made me the person I am today.
My father often also pointed out those who had also left, who had also done well. There’s a selection bias there but I feel like having a mix of both a rural and urban experience is extremely helpful in human development.
Those that stay… well my father was often disappointed to hear how poorly things went out there, but with no family remaining there he never returned. Abused, poorly supported (though sometimes it seemed not for a lack of trying), with an evaporative cooling effect removing the best and brightest as they went to urban areas seeking better lives, and perhaps resentful they didn’t get to leave. The crab bucket effect is in full play as well, dragging back down many who climb but don’t get out.
In the end the remainers feel not quite unlike a medieval peasant: A prize for nobility to fight over, an accessory to the land they work, and body that can be drafted when someone threatens to take that prize away.
I grew up in one of those places. It was a town that anyone from a real city would think of as tiny, but was seen as the “Big City” in the area: population of around 35k, by far the largest in a several hour drive. I left when I graduated to go to college and have never returned from more than a holiday break to visit friends and family. Some of my friends and family left and some stayed. Everyone who stayed… well, it hasn’t worked out well for them. They all ended up with dead end jobs in a dying town, hoping for the boom times again that will never come. They’ve become bitter, paranoid, and fearful of the outside world. The last time I was there, in 2021, was so damn sad. The town is so run down, there is a bad meth problem, and everything just felt despondent. Yeah, the town has chosen to do it to themselves in a lot of ways and I wouldn’t be part of this community if I didn’t enjoy at least some schadenfreude, but I also have to wonder how will those 35000 people, and their kids, ever have a chance at a better life?