I'm actually a lot less fixated on coastal big city living than you might think. As a teen, I lived in northern New Mexico, and bonded with the landscape and nature there. It's just that, for me, for now, coastal big cities work well for a variety of reasons.
What I see as affecting the Rocky Mountain West is that change happens, regardless of whether or not people want it. The upshot of this is that what got you there won't necessarily keep you there.
In particular, the values of small-scale capitalism got much of the rural West to where it is (or in many areas was) are no longer capable of keeping the rural West there. Having as little regulation on individuals and businesses as possible produces one outcome when a place is off the radar and of little interest to those outside it, and quite another outcome once that same place becomes trendy to some of those in the teeming cities.
This is for the simple reason that there is more economic opportunity in the city, so city-dwellers tend to have more money, and if very lightly regulated markets (which operate on a one-dollar, one-vote principle) are how decisions are made, this means affluent newcomers will get to outvote long-term residents.
The intellectually honest response is self-reflection and willingness to question the long-held values that are now failing to produce the desired outcomes. But questioning long-held values can be inconvenient, while conspiracy theories that direct anger onto convenient scapegoats allow such inconvenience to be avoided.
I'm actually a lot less fixated on coastal big city living than you might think. As a teen, I lived in northern New Mexico, and bonded with the landscape and nature there. It's just that, for me, for now, coastal big cities work well for a variety of reasons.
What I see as affecting the Rocky Mountain West is that change happens, regardless of whether or not people want it. The upshot of this is that what got you there won't necessarily keep you there.
In particular, the values of small-scale capitalism got much of the rural West to where it is (or in many areas was) are no longer capable of keeping the rural West there. Having as little regulation on individuals and businesses as possible produces one outcome when a place is off the radar and of little interest to those outside it, and quite another outcome once that same place becomes trendy to some of those in the teeming cities.
This is for the simple reason that there is more economic opportunity in the city, so city-dwellers tend to have more money, and if very lightly regulated markets (which operate on a one-dollar, one-vote principle) are how decisions are made, this means affluent newcomers will get to outvote long-term residents.
The intellectually honest response is self-reflection and willingness to question the long-held values that are now failing to produce the desired outcomes. But questioning long-held values can be inconvenient, while conspiracy theories that direct anger onto convenient scapegoats allow such inconvenience to be avoided.
I believe we would agree that a class based view would ne an effective lens for "Yellowstone"-era