Rural Culture and its Discontents
“folkways and beliefs must be brought low, that Power may substitute for their influence its own authority and build its church on their ruins”. — Bertrand de Jouvenel
Rural culture
The countryside is less populated and agricultural. The agricultural economy is based on seasonality, there is no growth but only the seasonal cycles. Because of this seasonality, it is less productive. Growth only comes from non-harmony and non-cyclicality like in urban cultures.
Rural culture is based on open space anxiety. Open spaces on which villages are built, cause strong clan relations because beyond “Home” there is open space — An unfamiliarity that causes anxiety and dread. In contrast, urban culture is a labyrinth of closed spaces, where dread has nothing to do. Therefore strong kinships are not present — Individuality dominates clan security.
Open space anxiety creates also an inclination toward superstition and religiosity. Either the rural subject familiarizes open space — animism and nature worship, or creates open space defense mechanisms like a light in the dark and a cross in hell (traditional hope religiosity). In both cases, open space anxiety is tamed.
In rural communities, everyone knows each other. So there is some kind of predictability of the behavior because the community controls it. Therefore dynamism and multiplicity of the city causes anxiety in the rural subject. An urban community is not disciplined by the clan or the family, but by the state institutions. A rural subject lives by the folkways.
Strong state and urbanization
So the rural culture is by its essence contradictory to centralized state power. State power demands productivity and no other authority than the state itself. Non-productivity of rural culture contradicts the state’s economic interest in growth and accumulation. Folkways and kinship contradict the state’s demand for total obedience because the rural subject has other authorities than the state itself. Nature worship and the philosophy of harmony contradict the state’s inclination toward the exploitation of nature for more power and resources.
So is a tendency towards urbanization state-sponsored? — I don’t have an answer to this question, but the trend is apparent.
