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That sounds identical to the opening chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers! [1] 'What Wolf slowly realized was that the secret of Roseto wasn't diet or e
by visakanv 12y ago
That sounds identical to the opening chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers! [1]
'What Wolf slowly realized was that the secret of Roseto wasn't diet or exercise or genes or the region where Roseto was situated. It had to be the Roseto itself. As Bruhn and Wolf walked around the town, they began to realize why. They looked at how the Rosetans visited each other, stopping to chat with each other in Italian on the street, or cooking for each other in their backyards. They learned about the extended family clans that underlay the town's social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof, and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted twenty-two separate civic organizations in a town of just under 2000 people. They picked up on the particular egalitarian ethos of the town, that discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures.
In transplanting the paesani culture of southern Italy to the hills of eastern Pennsylvania the Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world. The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny little town in the hills.
"I remember going to Roseto for the first time, and you'd see three generational family meals, all the bakeries, the people walking up and down the street, sitting on their porches talking to each other, the blouse mills where the women worked during the day, while the men worked in the slate quarries," Bruhn said. "It was magical."'
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/books/chapters/chapter-outliers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/books/chapters/chapter-out...
- meric 12y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseto_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseto_effect Wow, that is patriarchal oppression and stifling familial roles.
- b6 12y agoI see the part I think you're talking about, but actually, it does not say that there was any oppression or that anyone was stifled.
- jeremysmyth 12y agoNo, that is you taking your agenda and layering it on top of a situation where it doesn't actually fit. Oppression and stifling social norms cause the very same stress that these guys appear to have managed to avoid. It appears that they've found their own norms that, to a naive observer, look stifling or oppressive, when the net effect is that the average level of social comfort actually increases. Call it "traditional gender roles" or "acceptance of social inequality" if that fits your particular bias, but you cannot take such a value judgement and call it "oppression".
- mseebach 12y agoI know you said you're being sarcastic, but the only way something like that work on any scale is when a social equilibrium is in place, and those are pretty fragile. I guessing wildly here, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ikaria is the kind of place young people leave, so there's hardly any pressure of social change. Obviously, the oppression and stifling isn't felt, that's the equilibrium, but I would guess that you would feel it very quickly if you tried to rock the boat. I strongly doubt that a openly gay, openly atheist couple (so, totally uncontroversial in most cities in Europe) would enjoy a happy, laid back lifestyle with plenty of daily socialising in Ikaria. I doubt that a straight, church-going couple that had married against their (Ikaria) parents will would do so. When social conservatives long for the lost world of the past, it's places like Ikaria they have in mind.
- meric 12y ago>> lost world of the past It's not like the past won't become the future again. Getting off-topic for me here, but... From "The Fate Of Empires" 1978, by John Glubb, who was Lieutenant General and commander of Jordan's Arab Legion: "The works of the contemporary historians of Baghdad in the early tenth century are still available. They deeply deplored the degeneracy of the times in which they lived, emphasising particularly the indifference to religion, the increasing materialism and the laxity of sexual morals. They lamented also the corruption of the officials of the government and the fact that politicians always seemed to amass large fortunes while they were in office. The historians commented bitterly on the extraordinary influence acquired by popular singers over young people, resulting in a decline in sexual morality. The ‘pop’ singers of Baghdad accompanied their erotic songs on the lute, an instrument resembling the modern guitar. In the second half of the tenth century, as a result, much obscene sexual language came increasingly into use, such as would not have been tolerated in an earlier age. Several khalifs issued orders banning ‘pop’ singers from the capital, but within a few years they always returned. An increase in the influence of women in public life has often been associated with national decline. The later Romans complained that, although Rome ruled the world, women ruled Rome. In the tenth century, a similar tendency was observable in the Arab Empire, the women demanding admission to the professions hitherto monopolised by men. ‘What,’ wrote the contemporary historian, Ibn Bessam, ‘have the professions of clerk, tax-collector or preacher to do with women? These occupations have always been limited to men alone.’ Many women practised law, while others obtained posts as university professors. There was an agitation for the appointment of female judges, which, however, does not appear to have succeeded. Soon after this period, government and public order collapsed, and foreign invaders overran the country. The resulting increase in confusion and violence made it unsafe for women to move unescorted in the streets, with the result that this feminist movement collapsed. "