[00:09.69]Why are so many people so anxious to get away from the small town or village where they were brought up,
[00:16.17]and to make for the big cities? They usually describe their hometown as “boring” or “dead,”
[00:22.91]or - the harshest criticism of all - as “provincial.”
[00:27.32]If we examine the question from a distance, as if we were viewing the whole country from a long way off,
[00:33.87]we start to get a clue about what it is that lures us into the big cities.
[00:39.21]The main point to notice about big cities is that they are big: there are a lot of people,
[00:45.06]and there are a lot of things going on. If you look down on a city, literally from a great distance,
[00:51.40]from an airplane at night, you will be struck by the incredible brightness of a city:
[00:57.53]there are so many lights that you cannot help feeling that all the bright things of life are down there waiting for you.
[01:04.90]But a feeling of disappointment will set in shortly after you land,
[01:09.18]because you will discover as you drive into the city center from the airport that the lights are just that:
[01:15.75]lights, miles and miles of street lights and neon signs.
[01:21.39]They are not in themselves sources of joy and happiness: city lights are not friendly, they are merely lights.
[01:29.53]In fact, the effect will probably be to make you feel lonely and isolated.
[01:34.78]And yet the city lures us, because it is not provincial like the dead little town we have left behind us.
[01:42.15]“Provincial” is in fact our way of describing not the town but the attitude of the people. In our little town,
[01:49.35]we know (or think we know) everybody. And what we know about them is that they do not want to go anywhere,
[01:57.02]or to do anything outside to normal routine of their everyday lives. Unlike us, they have no sense of adventure,
[02:04.56]no longing for new experiences or new horizons.
[02:08.58]So we look down on them, pity or despise them, pack our bags, and make for the big world which we know is out there,
[02:16.23]where the bright lights are. Then a curious thing happens. We find a job, make a small circle of friends and acquaintances,
[02:26.17]and move into some cramped accommodation. Gradually we get to know our section of the city, its shops and its people,
[02:35.13]and for a while, we begin to feel at home. It is small enough, our part of the city, for us not to feel lost or anonymous.
[02:44.08]We, in effect, create another little village for ourselves within the big city.
[02:50.50]The ultimate irony comes when we rent a television set so that we can stay in at night
[02:55.96]and watch exactly the same programs that our despised country cousins watch.
[03:01.72]Soon we too become “provincial”, and others who live round us will be glad to get up and leave us behind.
