Why Portland is going to hell.

So I'm in Fields, Oregon right; eating a giant half pound hamburger that is "world famous," and having a loose conversation with a local. You know, the kind of conversation where you are just kind of half listening to the other person and really just talking because its Fields and how often do you get to talk to people who stare at great gouts of empty space all day.


Yocal: ...don't get but one station on the television, down from Burns. They won't report the weather down here though. (Pause for dramatic effect) I tell you, we don't stand for things like they do up in Portland, if a man were to molest a child down here he wouldn't last long that's for sure.

Me: Uh... (Definitely listening now)

Yocal: We don't stand for no riff raff around here.

Me: Yep...

I then preceded to explain how city life and rural life both had their ups and downs. It didn't occur to me until later that I might have struck him as bad people. I was with my wife at the time, who is younger than I am, but by no means a child. So I was kind of unhinged by what he said. He took his coffee outside shortly after that. What I should have asked him is if there is no riff raff in Harney county then who is putting all the holes in the signs? Seriously there were zero signs with no bullet holes (actually there was one).

Here is the problem though; for some (alot) of people perception is reality and the mind will try to protect that reality at all costs. So for this guy (in his 70's) his perception was that a life spent avoiding large crowds of people, traffic, and all the other crappy things about living in a city was well worth it. In his estimation his life was well spent away from the urban enviornment. If he were to be shown that city life is better (which it is not) his mind would find fault with it somehow, or reject it out of hand. This is an extreme case of the human tend toward rationalizing reality.

Here is an example; while at the barrage recently I encountered a cloud of smoke that seemed to come out of nowhere. I took a step back and my brain shut down. The smoke seemed to just appear out of thin air. Now I know a thing or two about physics and the spontaneous emmision of smoke from air is a statistical unlikelyhood. My brain did not want to think about that smoke because it would involve violating my rationalized reality (not to mention plain old reality). It turned out to be just Dirk burning one.

So, maybe that old guy in Fields really does believe that Portland is full of child molestors and rapist sympathisers. Maybe he doesn't have a choice in believing it because the alternative would be too depressing. Actual good people in a city.

Of course he might have a relative that was molested or something and the experience was fresh on his mind, or maybe he is right and all of us Portlanders will soon be beachfront at a lake of fire.