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Mendon, Missouri

seandietrich.com

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Re: Mendon, Missouri

#81

Post by mlyle »

InefficientRed wrote: post #78
mlyle wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I think people are good overall. I think the biggest reason people in small towns may be a bit quicker to help is that people in cities are a little conditioned by the bystander effect to assume that people around them, or the authorities, are better equipped to help. But any random individual asked for help in a city is likely to go well beyond their duty and be quite helpful.

> or the authorities, are better equipped to help. It's not just "equipped to help". It's also that random untrained people can do more harm than good. Hell, even random trained people can do more harm that good when there are too many people around. I'm not a medical professional, but I have some first aid training and have been the most-trained first responder in not-even-crowded areas on a few occasions. Even with…

Yah-- I'm not even quite talking about that, though. Whether someone else is better qualified to help in a given circumstance or not, we're conditioned to not get involved because someone else will. Hence, the bystander effect, which stops people from being helpful even when they could.

I have first aid training, too, and my impulse is not to rush to help but to look around at other people and see if they're going to do something.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#82

Post by lotsofpulp »

mlyle wrote: post #73
exar0815 wrote: post #45

I have witnessed something quite similar. During the flash-floods in 2021 in Germany, locals in the Ahr region absolutely rose to the occasion. Farmers were evacuating people in head-high water with their tractors during the night, local restaurants were already providing hot food and water the next morning wherever they could reach, pharmacies were loading whatever they had available on ATVs to somehow get much-need…

Yes. I think people are good overall. I think the biggest reason people in small towns may be a bit quicker to help is that people in cities are a little conditioned by the bystander effect to assume that people around them, or the authorities, are better equipped to help. But any random individual asked for help in a city is likely to go well beyond their duty and be quite helpful.

> I think people are good overall.

Until a certain amount of sacrifices have to be made. Then things start getting tribal. The sacrifices do not even have to be material, simply sacrificing or losing socioeconomic status relative to others is sufficient.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#83

Post by xbar »

mcphage wrote: post #52
xbar wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a question you are asking in good faith, because I think it is clear that he is not making that claim?

> I think it is clear that he is not making that claim? This is the second last line of the piece, where the author explicitly makes that claim: >> Although we rarely hear about such acts of compassion and lovingkindness within our society, believe me, they happen. Every day. Every hour. Ordinary Americans will astound you with their goodwill. Sadly, ordinary American journalists aren’t interested in being astounded…

I think your question was rhetorical in casting journalism that focuses on American goodwill as "human interest" was designed to engender an angry response; that it was a trollish question where you already had an answer that was baiting; that you were not at all asking that question; that you were expressing an opinion.

I think your responses affirm my read.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#84

Post by InefficientRed »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #61
melenaboija wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although I agree with it I think that small towns have something that is lost in big cities which is the sense of community, and that is simply because in towns you know every single person that has some impact in your daily live. My family is from a small town who moved to the city right before I was born and there is something my mom said to me when I was a kid that got stuck in my mind which is the awareness of de…

smaller communities exist in big cities too. They might be neighbourhoods like a small town, or interest, cause or activity-based. The trick is not to defer to government to provide them for you, which I think is harder in big centers.

Harkening back to the GP post: Mr. Rogers Neighborhood was based on a city neighborhood, not a small town.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#85

Post by bigdict »

alasdair_ wrote: post #38

Americans are especially good when it comes to large efforts over the course of a short space of time to solve a major problem. Americans are also especially bad at tackling problems that require a small, consistent, amount of help over a long period of time. I’m honestly not sure why this is.

That's people.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#86

Post by PrairieFire »

fortran77 wrote: post #5

One way to see rural MO is on the Katy bike trail: https://mostateparks.com/park/katy-trail-state-park It's a 240 mile protected bike path.

And ironically one of the most popular ways to “do” the Katy trail is to take the Amtrak to Kansas City since that train has bike stowage, and riding the trail from west to east is (generally) all downhill.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#87

Post by mindslight »

rustymonday wrote: post #63
photochemsyn wrote: post #31

For some reason this reminded me of the Ray Bradbury story, "The Town Where Noone Got Off" which is a dark little story indeed about two men and a small town on a railroad line. This one is a bit more positive. However, it turns out this whole incident was apparently due to the lack of a railroad crossing guard system of any kind at the intersection. The most basic system has flashing lights warning of oncoming train…

You must not drive out in the country often. Railroad crossing with lights are not common outside busy roads. The most you'll have is a railroad crossing sign. Certainly a flashing light system is safer, but you (and that news article) make it sound like it's absence is unusual.

The absence of traffic control devices isn't unusual, but it's most certainly condemnable.

Being in a denser area where crossings generally have a light and a gate, it really irks me when I see a no-visibility at-grade crossing with just an intended-to-be-ignored "yield" sign for the road. It's nothing more than a pathetic fiction to legally cover the railroads ass after the fact, and the setup should be outright illegal.

I've experienced different expectations in less dense areas with generally clear landscapes, say where a single main road runs parallel to the tracks and all the branches on one side cross the tracks. But overall US railroad standards are stuck in the 19th century and we shouldn't just accept that state of affairs.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#88

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

Clubber wrote: post #68
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment suggests that there's "65%" of the country that just wants to get along. I'm disputing that.

>When things are not so good financially (e.g. after 30+ years of the destruction of the American manufacturing sector and wholesale movement of capital and labor offshore), this becomes much, much less easy. Neither of the political parties are doing anything other than lip service to entice jobs back. Trump was the only one to really bring it up in probably 40 years, and he was lambasted. >Your comment suggests tha…

Bernie Sanders and others associated with the DSA have been raising the impact of trade and global financial treaties for decades. Hell, even Ross Perot made "the giant sucking sound" that NAFTA would create a center piece of his campaign. Trump never proposed anything at all that would have addressed the impacts, and hence was lambasted over this. "I will bring back " and then doing precisely nothing (often because there's nothing that could be done) is solid grounds for ridicule.

There may only be a "a few" wedge issues, but they concern the fundamentals of how a society is run and organized. To name just a few in no particular order:

role of redistribution in the economy / role of religion in public education (and education and public life more widely) / whether or not life begins at conception and the moral consequences of one's answer / how much (if any) foreign military intervention / the importance of a mammoth response to climate change / the extent of and response to systemic discrimination in historical and present day society / individual responsibilities during public health emergencies / the roles and responsibilities of for-profit corporations in society / ...

People do not agree about these things, nor will they.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#89

Post by micromacrofoot »

bigdict wrote: post #85
alasdair_ wrote: post #38

Americans are especially good when it comes to large efforts over the course of a short space of time to solve a major problem. Americans are also especially bad at tackling problems that require a small, consistent, amount of help over a long period of time. I’m honestly not sure why this is.

That's people.

Yeah exactly, big efforts where you see short-term results are instantly gratifying - you see things change almost immediately.

Small gradual changes are hard to see, many people might overlook them entirely, and the reward is stretched thin or very far off. You might not even see the full outcome in your lifetime.

It’s easy to see why people favor short term results.

This old proverb comes to mind: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

We’ve still got a long way to go.

Re: Mendon, Missouri

#90

Post by InefficientRed »

rustymonday wrote: post #63
photochemsyn wrote: post #31

For some reason this reminded me of the Ray Bradbury story, "The Town Where Noone Got Off" which is a dark little story indeed about two men and a small town on a railroad line. This one is a bit more positive. However, it turns out this whole incident was apparently due to the lack of a railroad crossing guard system of any kind at the intersection. The most basic system has flashing lights warning of oncoming train…

You must not drive out in the country often. Railroad crossing with lights are not common outside busy roads. The most you'll have is a railroad crossing sign. Certainly a flashing light system is safer, but you (and that news article) make it sound like it's absence is unusual.

On the contrary, OP correctly identified that lacking even basic safety systems is a pervasive issue and not a one-off oversight in the case of this small town:

>> In that respect it's also a story about the poor state of American infrastructure.

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