...that the Roman Polanski arrest points up yet another difference between red and blue state America. If you're of the blue state left/liberal position, you probably see Polanski as a tragic artiste being unjustly persecuted for a tiny little mistake made decades ago; if you're of the red state right/conservative persuasion, you're probably of the opinion that Polanski is a dirty little rapist who will finally pay for the crime he committed and avoided the penalty for all these years.
Two deeply divergent populations living in the same country; one of them urban, highly educated, in control of the education system and the arts; the other rural, less educated, in control of the churches; neither much inclined at this point to compromise on deeply held beliefs and principles. It doesn't bode well for the future to be split at such an elemental level, does it?
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As one of the rednecks who grew up in the farmland deep in red America, I would argue with your characterization of urbanites as "well-educated" and rural folk as "less educated".
That is an unfounded, inaccurate stereotype that the urbanites would like to believe but is hardly based on reality.
I'd put the education I received in podunk schools surrounded by corn fields up against any hoity-toity big city schooling any day of the week.
And I didn't have to suffer through years of attempted liberal/socialist brainwashing to get my education.
Education is over-rated anyway. It has its purpose:
"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."
--Gilbert Keith Chesterton
But is vastly over-valued as an indicator of one's ability to excel in any practical endeavor.
"Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought."
-- Ludwig von Mises
@Sailorcurt: as it is, I agree with you; the characterization of the urbans as "well-educated" simply refers to the number of them who have attended colleges compared to their rural counterparts. As it is, it's common for me to describe urban people as educated beyond their intelligence level.
As it is, I only have a high school education, myself.
Oh...and by the way:
Polanski is the most heinous of criminals.
One who preys on the most helpless among us...those who trust us to protect and nurture them...our children.
He violated that trust in an unspeakable fashion.
I only hope that they don't send him to some sort of minimum security "Club Fed" but that he does real time.
I only wish he had been convicted of the rape he actually committed rather than the watered down "unlawful sex with a minor" charge he plea bargained down to.
Based on my experiences growing up in the country and having lived in cities much of my adult life while in the Navy, I have serious doubts about even the sheer numbers.
Per capita, I'd say that the percentage of rural people with higher education degrees and post-graduate degrees is at least as high as the percentage of urbanites.
And I'd contend that the percentage of high school graduates is MUCH higher among the rural population than the urban.
This is just an observational, anecdotal opinion, not based on any scientific study...but the percentage of people in the rural community where I grew up who didn't graduate from high school was extremely small, and the vast majority of them had some sort of learning or mental disability.
And they were still productive members of society. You don't have to be able to quote Shakespeare to raise cattle or plant corn.
Yes, there were under educated people around where I grew up...but not nearly on the scale that you see them in the cities.
The educated people in the cities just assume that they are in the majority because they don't hang out in the projects or even in the neighborhoods of the "working poor".
I don't think many urbanites have any idea how many of those John Deere hat wearing, skoal ring in the pocket of their dirty, faded jeans, driving the 20 year old rusted out pickup down the gravel road hicks have advanced degrees in agribusiness, horticulture, animal husbandry, etc.
My father was a high school graduate and my mother was a school teacher with a Master's degree in education. A good number of my family members have advanced post-graduate degrees including engineers, doctors, ordained ministers, lawyers, farmers, teachers, school principles, etc.
The assumption that rural people are less educated than urban people is, in my experience, not even a function of raw numbers or percentages...it's complete bunk.
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