Stadler and Cincinnatus sparked an interesting debate last week in their comments on the gay marriage in Iowa post on the time-honored question of which is more virtuous, city life or country life? I want to do some more with the specific comments, but the issue is worth thinking about. First, let’s understand that “virtue” does NOT necessarily signify moral righteousness and freedom from sin. Let’s agree that sin spans all demographics. “Virtue” comes from a word meaning “strength.” The four cardinal virtues of the pagan Greeks and Romans were courage, justice, prudence, and self-control. They were traits of good character, in a civil sense, but they could be held by cruel tyrants and evil men. (With the exception, perhaps of “justice,” which does involve transcendent morality, Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun could claim these virtues.)
So what are the virtues–that is, the cultural strengths–of different places to live? Could we agree that rural areas, including small towns, promote a sense of community and tend to be more culturally conservative and closer to nature? And that urban areas promote a sense of freedom, cultural change, and dominance of nature? What are the corresponding vices?
A significant strain of political thinkers, from Thomas Jefferson to Wendell Berry, argues that country life provides the best soil for cultivating citizens for a democratic republic. Are they wrong?
What virtues are there in suburbia, where, in fact, most Americans now live?
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