"Michael S. Lorrey" wrote:
> I do not see
> much difficulty for residents of rural areas to distinguish.
<snip>
> have found that its far easier for rural resident
> A from Montana to trust rural resident B from New Hampshire than for
> city resident A from one side of Boston to trust city resident B from
> the other side of Boston. Could it simply be that the shared values of
> city dwellers are values of distrust of the individual in favor of
> bureaucratic authority?
Quite possibly. Could it also be that the Montanan and Hampshirite share
more common values, or think they do? Sure. I know what you are driving
at, but note that you said "easier". Not "a slam dunk".
> I do freak petty socio/communo-fascists all the time.
OK, let's take two extreme examples of individualism, then something
that happened to me a couple years back:
1) Flash or print a concealed weapon in New Mexico, one of those rural
places you and I both tend to like. Get arrested. Resist arrest and
escape, claiming that your constitutional rights are being violated.
Return to your home. Wait for the SWAT team and negotiators. I am not
saying it's right, I am saying it happens; at some point, if you act
"weird" enough, you will be presumed to be a danger to others and you
will be called a wacko. Even in Ojai.
2) After getting all proper permits for a public event from your local
socio/communo-fascists, undertake to perform a blood animal sacrifice of
some medium-sized animal in your local (small) town square. Invite the
media. Invoke Cthulhu, and call for the destruction of all that
Christians value. Paint your self with and drink the blood, and offer it
to children to do the same. Still covered in blood, go to various
merchants offering the blood for wholesale as a miracle cure for
Christianity. Wait for results. You might not be committed, but I
ga-ron-tee that the word "crazy" will be applied by some people.
You were just being an individual; in the latter case, it was just
performance art. What is their problem?
I agree that is seems to be harder to freak country folk, at least
superficially: "Oh, that's just Jeb. Don't mind ol' Jeb, he just got
some WAYS about him." These people are talking about someone they have
known from birth.
You say you wouldn't do either of those things? Hey! Hel-looooo, shared
values!
3) But if you walk into a small community diner as a total unknown,
wearing no pants and a parka that doesn't quite cover what other people
wish it did, after being up in the hill country where there ain't nobody
to care and you plumb forgot, plus you thought you *were* figleafed,
expect to be treated as a potential loony. I speak from personal
experience. Luckily, I was able to get congruent quickly enough that I
was just invited to never return to that establishment. By about three
CHiPpies. And the waitress did not look happy, either.
But hell, Mount Shasta Village is just as bad as NYC, right?
:)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:33 MDT