Quote:
Originally Posted by fastcarsfreedom
Interesting respsonses. I'm actually not here trying to "advance" the cause of suburbia at all. I think the benefits of both the city and suburbs stand on their own. Like yourselves, I enjoy my lifestyle and my community and don't feel it needs boosting. Frankly speaking, the responses I've read here regarding crime are nothing short of spin, and completely ignore the point I was trying to make.
Once again, everything goes back to the underlying theme here--which is that all people who do not live in the urban environ be damned. Considering how destructive provincial thinking has been over the past few decades, it alarms and surprises me that progressive thinkers such as yourselves would embrace it so readily.
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This shouldn't be surprising.
Rare indeed is the truly "progressive thinker". In general, people's tribal, territorial, philosophical, and (nowadays) lifestyle allegiances prevail over all else. As popular ethical notions shift, those whose allegiances happen to be in line with the shift invariably take the opportunity to proclaim themselves "progressives", and to decry those whose allegiances run counter to it as "regressives" and "reactionaries". This is certainly the case with the urban/suburban divide as we see it play out in this forum.
markbarbera illustrates this point well when he writes: "As someone who lives in the inner city, I am tired of it constantly being painted with broad brushstrokes by those looking at it from the outside. It's not that we do not want it discussed, we want it kept in proper perspective. If your neighbourhood's crime level was being constantly exagerrated and overstated, would you not raise a voice so a more truthful representation be heard? Are you suggesting I simply let these exaggerations go unchallenged and allow the perception to continue to be perverted?"
The above is an expression of allegiance more than anything else. While markbarbera later attempts to legitimize this remark by noting that the negative perception (re crime in the inner city) is ultimately detrimental to the downtown, the us-them dichotomy is clearly what animates the response.
RTH falls prey to the same prejudice when he writes "yep, I'm with ya. People who never venture downtown always try to act like the experts on downtown crime, lifestyle, traffic ideas etc..... I wish they would just shut-up and stay at Walmart for the extra 30 minutes a day."
The implication here is that only those who live downtown are fit to comment on its crime, lifestyle, traffic, etc.. Although there is some merit to this remark on its face, the ultimate attempt here is to deny the validity of a point of view simply on the basis of the status of its maker (i.e. urbanite/suburanite). This is just elitism of another stripe. Moreover, there is an element of rank hypocrisy here. RTH chides suburbanites for perpetuating stereotypes relating to the inner city, while at the same time perpetuating one of his own relating to the suburbs (i.e. that all suburbanites habitually shop at big box stores). This, perhaps more than anything else, betrays the fact that his thinking is predicated more on the basis of allegiance to a particular lifestyle identity (and hostility towards different allegiances seen to be in competition with this lifestyle identity) than on any real notion of progressiveness (or what is ultimately best for this city).
There is nothing wrong with identity allegiance per se (as it is such an irresistible human predisposition), but progressive thinking almost by definition resists the sort of exclusivity and chauvinism which allegiance invariably entails. Progressive thinkers are the ones who transcend their allegiances to see a particular issue from the perspective of every interested party, while at the same time being cognizant of the best ultimate outcome. Thus Gandhi could see the India question from both the Indian/British perspective and, later, the Hindu/Muslim one, while Mandela could see Apartheid from both white and black points of view. As I say, such progressive thinking is very rare, and I don't expect we'll see much of it on this forum.