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> We value individuality and selfishness. In fact, we actually deify these qualities... (especially US society) I don't think it's "US society", as much as it

> We value individuality and selfishness. In fact, we actually deify these qualities... (especially US society) I don't think it's "US society", as much as it is urban and suburban society which has become dominant over the last few decades. Traditionally in the US, people were a lot more communal--neighbors and families would share farm equipment, help each other through busy seasons, watch each other's farm while the other was away, help raise each other's kids, etc. Maybe the problem isn't our Americanism, but rather the lack of it, and maybe the solution is figuring out how to integrate more of it into our modern society rather than doubling down on our increasingly isolated, me-first sub/urban existences.

FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
The other half of this picture is that the old farming communities have died, and the whole of the American Midwest is now a giant machine for the industrial production of food, inhabited by just a few people, who maintain the giant sprinklers and combines that stride across the depopulated landscape.
- throwaway894345 4y ago
  This isn’t true where i hail from (also, which parts of the midwest rely on sprinklers? I’ve only seen them in the west and southern plains. Maybe Kansas and the western Dakotas?
  - FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
    The view from I80 across Nebraska and Iowa.
    - NotSammyHagar 4y ago
      My grandparents town in the south used to have a vibrant down town with local everything. Then walmart came and wiped out all the stores, then farms became ever less practical financially, all the kids moved away, then the local restaurants closed. Now there's a few streets of closed businesses and a few restaurants hanging on. This is why all those people from the small towns feel the apocalypse is on them, there is no viable financial path for people there anymore, and they have to support politicians who say only they can fix it, but end up hurting them even more. This same thing happened to my great grandparent's farmland and small town in a town 500 miles away.

FooBarBizBazz 4y ago

The other half of this picture is that the old farming communities have died, and the whole of the American Midwest is now a giant machine for the industrial production of food, inhabited by just a few people, who maintain the giant sprinklers and combines that stride across the depopulated landscape.

throwaway894345 4y ago
This isn’t true where i hail from (also, which parts of the midwest rely on sprinklers? I’ve only seen them in the west and southern plains. Maybe Kansas and the western Dakotas?
- FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
  The view from I80 across Nebraska and Iowa.
  - NotSammyHagar 4y ago
    My grandparents town in the south used to have a vibrant down town with local everything. Then walmart came and wiped out all the stores, then farms became ever less practical financially, all the kids moved away, then the local restaurants closed. Now there's a few streets of closed businesses and a few restaurants hanging on. This is why all those people from the small towns feel the apocalypse is on them, there is no viable financial path for people there anymore, and they have to support politicians who say only they can fix it, but end up hurting them even more. This same thing happened to my great grandparent's farmland and small town in a town 500 miles away.