No, I am not about to rant about city dwellers, I just happened to notice that apparently behaving like people in the city means disrespecting rules.
Honestly, think of TV shows, books, etc, in which a country bumpkin visits the big city and is laughed at by the townies for not bringing food in the tube, saying Hello to everyone and waiting at the traffic lights for the light to go green, before crossing. I myself could be described as a country girl. Most of my life I lived on a farm and the biggest city around me was Innsbruck, which I would not consider to be a metropolis or very urban. Generally, I am very respectful and polite - even for countryside. I don't put my feet on the bus seat (and not because manners forbid it but because I actually care about the person sitting there at some point). I only eat on trains or tubes when I am really hungry because it is really annoying when I reek of McDonald's just because the person next to me has a horrible sense of organisation and has to eat their Big Mac on the bus. So are townies more impolite? Probably not. Probably they just feel less observed in such a big area that they can be quite sure that whoever witnesses their inappropriate behaviour will never see them again. Probably it has nothing to do with city or country and it is just about me respecting other people more than most (she said in all humbleness). But I cannot deny that the city has changed me. I now also sometimes put my feet on the seat (partly because the English trains leave so little space for your legs that your knees are up to your chin if you don't stretch out to the next seat). Sometimes I even cross the street when it's red (which is stupid because you spend two minutes looking stressed from right to left to cross the road, wishing there was a system telling you when to go - oh, there is - before two scenarios happen: either you are so busy looking for cars right and left that you actually miss the traffic light jumping to green and end up being the last person crossing the road; or you take a chance, a car comes right the second you put your foot on the street and you have to jump back and endure the smirks of the other people waiting - so lose/lose, right?). Anyway, I do think the anonymity in a city gives you freedom for bending the rules, so townies, don't be mean to us country bumpkins for following the rules - you shouldn't be laughed at for that.
3 Comments
Papagena
8/15/2016 10:07:24 am
Very good text! I think big cities make people believe that they can act anonymus. In a small town you tend to behave better in public because all the time you meet people you know, no matter if you want to or not. You are aware to be seen and that your (bad) behavior can be witnessed. A good example by the way are tourists. Some of them behave like they would never do in their hometown. - Because nobody knows them here. Quite funny to think about!
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Angie
8/15/2016 11:14:48 am
Totally agree with you and thanks for mentioning the tourists, I think that is a very good point. Cities - or generally places where we don't know anyone - free us probably to the extent that we bend rules...the question now would be only, does that mean that these "rules" are inasmuch stupid because we only obey them when we feel watched?
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Papagena
8/15/2016 01:50:51 pm
An interesting question! Of course we should behave properly, no matter if somebody is watching us or not. But it's also a part of the human character, isn't it? - to feel informal when we are - or at least think we are - alone. It gives us a kind of childish joy to behave like an idiot and getting away with it.
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AuthorIn September 2015 I started a new chapter of my life by moving (temporarily or permanently, not yet decided) to England where I work and socialise now. Archives
December 2017
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