October 18, 2008
Urban Primitives:"The over-urbanized are the willing clients of the nanny state. They are loathe to take responsibility for anything; they assume when anything goes wrong, some specialist or expert will fix it. Even when they have children they expect “child-care facilities”. They are salaried people; few have ever taken a risk on their own dime. Their taxes are lifted from them at source.... They think of the city and the government as something that was always there -- as a second nature. They are defenceless when primary nature reasserts itself (as we saw, poignantly, in New Orleans). Like isolated and primitive peoples elsewhere, they develop superstitions -- “urban myths” -- that account for the mysterious provision of their public services, and they worship their “rainmaking” urban political gods. Their lives are regulated by principles of “political correctness” bound in on every side by taboo." - David Warren
Posted by Vanderleun at October 18, 2008 10:58 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
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Brilliant essay by David Warren.
All my life, though an urban & suburban dweller throughout, I always listened to the little voice in my head reminding me to never forget the "inner barbarian" in me that I can allow to surface when things get dangerous, messy, inconvenient, or out of kilter.
Despite my better nature, I find myself feeling contempt for the soft, cringing urbanites who don't seem to have a clue about what may be lurking out there.
Posted by: Roderick Reilly at October 20, 2008 10:10 AM