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Cities may offer sophistication but the residents have to take advantage of it.
I've met too many people in small towns who are cultured and too many city folks who never left the block. I usually find myself hanging with transplants in St. Louis and Chicago. So much easier to get them to visit that new restaurant or attend a new cultural festival in the next up and coming neighborhood.
I think the determining factor today is whether you've lived elsewhere. People who live in the same place they grew up in, and didn't even move away for a few years for school or jobs, usually aren't very cultured or exposed. This would also include native New Yorkers although to a lesser extent than someone who live in a small town. Generally speaking though the same boring person who lives in a major city would likely pick up on small things like how to say Nguyen or order different kinds of sushi than someone living in a small town, although I've met plenty of rubes in New York or Houston who manage to elude those influences.
Yes the person matters. But it's soooo much easier to see and experience more things in a big city -- other cultures, arts, etc. You'll end up being friends, co-workers, and/or acquaintances with people from a variety of countries. And you can travel to other countries much easier.
Maybe a better word for what I believe the OP is asking would be does living in a big city make you more "worldly" - in that sense exposure to a variety of people/places/things of cities does broaden "worldliness" to a degree, but only if one is curious and receptive in experiencing the differences from one's own cultural experiences.
It first comes down to an individual having a personal sense of curiosity in looking beyond their own life and existence, no matter where one lives. Education, travel, reading, etc are also important ways curious people become exposed to different cultures, but a person has to absorb what they have seen and done for it to make a difference as opposed to just being a tourist.
I don't believe there can even be universal agreement about what makes one "cultured" as outside of royalty there really are no rules. For those of us not born of that class of people, we will always be nothing but hicks, rubes, and trash no matter where we live, how much we know, or how wealthy we become. And i don't care as I don't measure myself that way. I do measure people on whether they are curious, however, and I try to be curious and be around those sorts of individuals as much as possible.
Last edited by RocketSci; 06-16-2022 at 10:47 PM..
Yes. A person outside a big city is less likely to know the new pronouns. And would not have a local cineplex showing the latest Iranian films. Or have a restaurant featuring the fashionable Albanian pizza styles.
I think the determining factor today is whether you've lived elsewhere. People who live in the same place they grew up in, and didn't even move away for a few years for school or jobs, usually aren't very cultured or exposed. This would also include native New Yorkers although to a lesser extent than someone who live in a small town. Generally speaking though the same boring person who lives in a major city would likely pick up on small things like how to say Nguyen or order different kinds of sushi than someone living in a small town, although I've met plenty of rubes in New York or Houston who manage to elude those influences.
Agreed, although I think even this is becoming less true because of the internet. But it's still very true that moving away from your family as an adult (at least for a few years) is great for developing independence and life skills and helping you explore your own identity.
While yeah major cities do contain a more educated and cultured populace, there are exceptions. Take Portland, Oregon and Ann Arbor, Michigan as an example. Portland is a major city but the people there lack any individual thought and are a part of a homogeneous White bubble, intolerant to those who don't hold far left political beliefs, even resorting to violent extremism to those who oppose them. Then you have Ann Arbor, a small town that is well educated and has rational thinking people from all walks of life, who value diversity and different cultures/viewpoints.
Last edited by NearFantastica; 06-17-2022 at 04:16 AM..
Lordy, some of y'all act like cities are surrounded by walls to keep the 'rubes' out and that the internet must not be available to 'country folk'.
It is not where you live, it's how you live.
I saw quite a few Fellini and Bergman films, but none of them were never screened within 500 miles of my house. I had to find them at local colllege film series, or try to see them on visits to Montreal or San Francisco. In recent times, Golden Globe winning films show once in Cinemax at 3-am and yes, the internet helps, you have to search listings to find them. Non-urban America has always been a wasteland for art and culture. When only one American out of a thousand in an entire state has ever even heard if Fellini, what kind of culture criterion is that? Most people think they have been exposed to culture if they've been to Six Flags and rode the roller coaster.
While yeah major cities do contain a more educated and cultured populace, there are exceptions. Take Portland, Oregon and Ann Arbor, Michigan as an example. Portland is a major city but the people there lack any individual thought and are a part of a homogeneous White bubble, intolerant to those who don't hold far left political beliefs, even resorting to violent extremism to those who oppose them. Then you have Ann Arbor, a small town that is well educated and has rational thinking people from all walks of life, who value diversity and different cultures/viewpoints.
The largest cities and the smallest towns all have people of varying levels of education and "culture."
Portland is more than 5 times larger than Ann Arbor, and aside from a higher percentage of Asians (as much of the population is students and faculty) and higher percentage of college students, they are demographically similar with an overwhelming white majority.
And while Portland does seem to attract more than its share of anarchists, their actions do not reflect the vast vast majority of the people in Portland. Anarchists represent neither "the left" nor "the right" side of the political spectrum, though many people don't seem to understand that.
As Portland is a much larger city, it increases one's opportunities of exposure to differing cultures than smaller places, though many college towns do offer more bang for the buck in general.
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