General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: DU Poll: Will the US eventually just be really solid red in the middle of the [View all]The Magistrate
(95,267 posts)But certainly water navigation was once a chief criterion for whether you could have a high-density urban population in the first place, so where-ever settlement dates back more than few decades, you are likely to find navigable water. Those living along routes of trade are more likely to come into contact with strangers, people unlike themselves, and so tend to be less insular. This applies far more strongly to people resident urban centers, which necessarily are points of trade and receive inflows of population from many quarters. The defining characteristic of rural areas is not that they have no problems, but that people there seldom interact with people who are not pretty much just like themselves. This leads to a distrust of 'outsiders', and a dismissal of any concerns beyond those of their own locale.