Glad you like what I’m doing… some highs and lows. I try to just show the highs. Sounds like you’re having a blast! Keep it real and remember you can always count on me for a long comment when your travels/blogs take you through the MO

@Nate: Thanks! And yes, the midget is real. You couldn’t make that kind of thing up.

@molly: Thanks!

@Sean: It was definitely a contrast, growing up between Cali and Missouri. I’m glad I had both, though. Wouldn’t give either of them up.

@brian: Thanks buddy!

@Alan: Definitely. In fact, I’ve been told that I’ll have the same response in regards to being American the more I travel outside of the states (’you’ll get more and more proud about your yank-ness’ is a semi-close quote, in fact). When I moved to Cali, I definitely noticed myself standing up for the Midwest more than I would have wile living there.

@Jessi: I agree with you to a degree…there is definitely more to any culture than the more prominent, most obvious or even just the first group that you see. At the same time, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with celebrating aspects of a culture that aren’t as complex as we’d normally spend our time. Is sitting around a campfire with cheap beer any less noble than debating modern literature in a coffee shop? Depends on who you ask, and how that person is feeling at that moment in time.

@Jesse: This was the comment I was waiting for. You make very valid points that there are groups of rednecks (or their ilk, whatever they might be called locally) everywhere, and especially in big states like California. It’s true, too, that there are a really large number of philosophizers and coffee-shop chess players in uber-conservative places like Springfield, Missouri.

I kept writing this piece even after I detected the subtle snobbery for a reason, though, and that reason was to acknowledge that we all have biases and preconceived notions. There are groups without nicknames that we still attribute properties to without having met them, and we’ll keep doing it no matter how un-PC it is because it’s a biological response. We as humans tend to file and label and pre-determine people’s motives and lifestyles because its an evolutionary trait that allowed us to detect danger, food that wasn’t good to eat, etc etc etc back in the day.

All that is fine and good, sure, but the real point is that being able to find something you can really appreciate about a group, even if it’s the flattest, least flattering, most simple and stereotypical thing about them is a step in the right direction. It leads to more encounters with the same group, and in the future encounters the guard will be let down a little more. Then a little more the next time. And then, if all is right in the universe (and when is it not?), someday we can all look at each other as the multi-dimension, fully fleshed-out people that we are.

If we avoid acknowledging certain aspects of a group’s character, however, then from the get-go we are applying our own values (saying some traits are good and therefore should be used liberally, while others are bad and should not be used to describe people) to others, which is, I think, the biggest mistake one can make when trying to understand another group of people.

Hopefully that makes sense, and I appreciate the well thought out feedback, Jesse. I’ve been keeping up with your work, by the way, and it’s still inspirational to me every time.

Also: Hello to everyone from Buenos Aires!

The overall theme here is that Missouri is a backwards-ass place, but you were able to find beauty in that ugliness and so you are a better person for it.

The problem is it feeds into this tiresome, persistent attitude of coastal snobbery: East and West coast people are educated, intelligent, fashionable and forward thinking, while people from the midwest are only interested in “consistency, security and reliability over evolution.”

Are there missing teeth, overalls, buzzcuts and rat tails in Missouri? Sure. But I’ve been to every major metro in the US, from LA to San Fran, up to Chicago, down to New Orleans, and east to Washington, DC, and I see the same shows of tasteless gaudiness. Maybe instead of a mullet and overalls it’s a bright orange suit with a full set of gold teeth. Or a Euro-Mullet with a stretched-to-the-breaking-point size-Small shirt on chubby, 6′5 dude. Is there really a difference?

I think the more progressive approach here would be to acknowledge the similarities. In Missouri, you got a hand up in the design world studying under some great teachers from Russia, Poland and China, while meeting friends from all over the country, and hanging around an active, progressive and often-times very liberal student base. In the meantime, you can go back to LA, drive an hour or so east of the city sprawl, find a county Super Walmart, and see California’s version of Missouri Hicks.

To invent a fun-fact, due to California’s enormous population, there are probably 4 hicks out there for every 1 here. You have to leave the city if you want to see them. But even without California Hick Hunting, you can stay in the city and find millions of the backwards, uneducated and uninterested in personal/societal evolution. In the end, I think what you’re really describing is being a member of the forward thinking, progressive, intellectual or creative class… enjoying coffee shops, sushi, philosophy and computers. We have that class here too, though in smaller numbers due to a smaller population. We also share similar percentages of those falling outside that class, from the tolerable to the intolerable.

I agree with your “have a beer” approach to the stereotypically negative aspects of the south. I’ve definitely made that comment about Bush too