On 10/21/2010 8:50 PM, Tom Sherman °_° wrote:
On 10/20/2010 9:49 AM, Peter Cole wrote:
[...]
As for "friendliness", I don't know how to measure that directly, but it
seems that people who choose to live among lots of other people must
like people more than those who choose the prairie.[...]

Yet, in the real world, people are the most rude and stand-offish in
large cites.

While you do get people that want to be "left the hell alone" in remote
rural areas, these people almost never bother those who do not intrude
upon them.

This is all a matter of density, same as bike riding. There are just as
many rural nutters as urban, it's just that the odds of encountering any
possible type go up with exposure rate, ditto for homicidal drivers.

This paper relates that mental health problems arise at the same rate
between rural and urban children while rural children don't seem to get
the same level of treatment:
http://muskie.usm.maine.edu/Publicat...h-Services.pdf.
Supports my experience.

"Standoffish-ness" can be interpreted as rude by those used to less
dense environments, but people are people, and these behaviors are part
of the deal. You don't make eye contact and/or small talk on crowded
subway trains or elevators. As personal space shrinks, the "bubble" gets
tighter. It's just human nature. It doesn't mean those people are all
misanthropes, far from it.

You seem to have this dislike for density, fine, but density supports
unique cultural opportunities and diversity. A more crowded environment
is generally a richer environment. You have more choices of employment,
entertainment and, yes, even friendship. Plus, for those concerned with
resource and population issues, dense communities are much more
efficient, having typically something like 1/4 the carbon footprint as
an equally affluent suburban location. Heck, almost half of New Yorkers
don't even own cars. Try that in Iowa.