The Nature of Place

I wouldn’t live in a large city for all the cash in the world. They are dirty, smelly, and in all truth downright ugly. But these are not my reasons.
City life makes humans weak. And dare I say, rather stupid.
One loses one’s individuality in a large city. To survive in such close quarters, a system of social engineering must be in place that controls most every element of the individuals life. We mustn’t do or say anything that could offend a neighbor or passerby. One’s residence, businesses, and travel options are micro-managed by city councils and various needling officials. These things must be agreed upon by one’s fellow urbanites...agreements that cede freedom for the sake of comfort, safety, and availability.
The weakness of our modern times are in effect more strongly, though rather subconsciously, in such an environment. With protection and aid so nearby, the need to command the world around oneself becomes much less vital. The forces, that in a more rural and/or wild area would cause a man to sharpen and hone his abilities are all but missing in the urban scene. Sure, one must always be on alert for crime and its inherent threat to one’s person, but law enforcement and hospital care are never far away.
This is no minor point. The difference in an Alaskan and a New Yorker is more than the locale in which they reside. The man himself is different. The Alaskan’s heart and mind are keener. He is less feminized. More self reliant. Yes, I’ll say it, more of a man.
It should come as no surprise that the city man tends to be rather more Liberal. He is a temporal creature. His removal from nature and its intrinsic dangers have made him less of a pragmatist. More at ease in a park than in a forest or wood. From this arises his Disneyesque view of the outdoors. His distaste for hunting and firearms. He will often view animals as humans in animal clothing if he chooses to view them at all. Does he feel a hole in his soul? Can he fill it with steel and cement?
By contrast the rural man appreciates the wildness of his surroundings. He feels a closeness to nature. It lights a fire in his soul and connects him to something greater. He sees nature for what it is, both beautiful and terrible all in the same moment. He respects the dangers around him and thus endeavors to be always prepared. His environment makes him strong. Makes him more of a man.
In closing, I offer this from Henry David Thoreau’s masterpiece Walden, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”