Beyond class – Academic 2

Demystifying America

DATE: November 25th

For my night on November 25th, I decided to watch the live-streamed “Steven Conn – Demystifying Rural America” from my dorm room, since I was unable to attend in person due to having a cold. Basically, his presentation is this feeling of rural America being the most important part of America, and that those that live in those area’s are “True American’s”. This notion comes from the fact that a large portion of the American population exists within urban areas and cities. This causes the general population to yearn to live in rural areas, as if we are getting back to our roots in that way. It promotes the individual, something that resonates with the ways of the Americans. Independence and self-sufficiency are often used to explain why America cannot have the same kind of state institutions that other countries may have, such as social welfare states of Western Europe. The trope is played out in media and politics as well. The third point he makes is the fact that rural Americans are like a barrier for an “Increasingly powerful, overreaching state in this country.”