Who's More Prone to Ignorance: Country Bumpkins or City Slickers?

The perpetual meme of the left is that people living in rural communities are more likely to be unintelligent, uninformed, and socially very un-savvy. By contrast, those living the urban lifestyle are said to be quick, up with the times, and much more intelligent. 

This was a meme that originated in the left's own bigotry against those who are socially more conservative or religious. That such people tended to be more common in the country than the city is the only reason why the city-dwellers were glorified at the expense of the country folk.

This has, no doubt, mystified those living in rural areas who have yet to encounter a city-dweller who seemed to have their head screwed on straight. Studies show those mystified backwater-dwellers might have a point.

Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it's long been recognized that city life is exhausting -- that's why Picasso left Paris -- this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

Science is showing us increasingly why living amidst the chaos and crowds of an urban environment might actually lead to lower cognitive abilities and - in fact - lead to something quite dangerous: a herd mentality seen among people in large groups. Science seems to suggest that rather than edgy, urban-dwellers really are just a bit more mindless. If being reduced to a pack animal or a mere node on a grid is edgy, then it is because it is pushing those in its numbers to the lower edge of humanity.

It's not just the absence of chaos that makes country living so appealing to great artists and so many others:

One of the main forces at work is a stark lack of nature, which is surprisingly beneficial for the brain. Studies have demonstrated, for instance, that hospital patients recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows, and that women living in public housing are better able to focus when their apartment overlooks a grassy courtyard. Even these fleeting glimpses of nature improve brain performance, it seems, because they provide a mental break from the urban roil.

In fact, one wonders how this might apply to education - how much does a similar dynamic contribute to the routinely poor performance of public school children versus their private school and home schooled counterparts.

Is it any wonder that large urban areas tend to more often vote Democrat and lean left when brains are overtaxed and cognitive ability is significantly impaired regardless of academic background. One might even suggest that those living in the country should be looked to by those in cities as a source of wisdom and insight into our biggest questions - rather than Hollywood and pop culture.

Some food for thought.