Town and Country

Nobody asked but …

What is the great attraction of the city?  We have gone from a world in which most of us were living on the land to a world where it is nearly impossible to experience the unartificial.  Why have we accumulated in these urban enclaves?

One of the reasons is for the increased possibilities of association with like people.  There are more bicyclists in the city, for instance.  There are enough people to support live theater, for another instance.  But this sort of close contact breeds side effects, and we become afraid of the the city — we fear the associations that we do not want.  We develop a need for anonymous assistance, as in the old film, My Bodyguard, or the television show, The Equalizer.  We acquiesce to a glut of laws and law enforcement, instead.

There will come a time, soon, when the flocking to the city will wane.  We are beginning to find more meaningful attachment to shared interest groups on the WWW.  People like myself can retreat to my fortress of solitude near Waddy, Kentucky.  Then I can voluntarily go to Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, and even on occasion, Chicago.  But in the meantime I stay in touch, cultivating my special interests, through EVC, Facebook, the Tom Woods Show, and so forth.

— Kilgore Forelle