Crazy People

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I live in a town of the mad.  Seriously.  It's your standard white picket fence, white-bread suburban sort of neighborhood that people are told they really want to live in.  The store is just down the street, all the houses are nice too look at and not very different from one another, and everyone who lives there is as crazy as a shithouse rat.

They believe everything they are told about America, even if those things are contradictory.  The Government is BAD and EVIL and wants to confiscate everything you earn and give it to smudgy people AND support our troops, Mister.  Everyone is equal because this is America BUT would you please pitch all the Hispanics out, Ma'am?  I am a Good Christian AND I'd like some more STUFF, please.

And when you LOOK at the town, you start to NOTICE things, which is why nobody that lives there ever looks. 

For example, there are only 4 house floor plans, and half of the houses fall into those 4 floor plans.  The other half of the houses are merely mirror images of those 4 house plans.  Likewise, while the store may just be down the street, not one store in the town - not kidding, here - is a Mom & Pop operation.  They are ALL chain stores of one kind or another...A few are franchizes, but that's really no different since they have to follow the same rules as the corporate-owned stores. 

This is intentional and no Mom & Pop store is ever going to get a business permit.  This is because people in my town like SAFE, APPROVED things, not some weird little thing that might go sideways on you.  There are a few restaurants that are owned by small businessmen, but you can tell which ones they are...The fucking SOUP costs $20.  That's SAFE, because it's EXPENSIVE, and you have to show your friends how affluent you are SOMEHOW, and you can't do that at Home Depot.

And the cars.  There are 4 acceptable cars.  SUV, Bigass Pickup, vintage sports cars, and hummers.  When I drive through town in my Toyota, everyone eyeballs me.  I do not fit.  Something is WRONG.  The herd is spooked.  I am not trying to look rich, and this doesn't fit in with their acceptable stimuli set.

I can't shake the notion that if you ran around behind any given building, you'd find a wooden frame holding the false front up, like on a Hollywood set.  Or that it's like The Stepford Wives, only they got EVERYONE.

And one day, I'll be buying groceries, and when I grab the bananas that AREN'T "organic", everyone will point and howl like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I never should have left The City.  I can understand the crazy people down there.

Or Kill Me.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Have you seen Urbanized? There only one part that's really relevant to what you're describing, but that part is very, VERY relevant.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Have you seen Urbanized? There only one part that's really relevant to what you're describing, but that part is very, VERY relevant.

No.  Is that a website or a movie?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Have you seen Urbanized? There only one part that's really relevant to what you're describing, but that part is very, VERY relevant.

No.  Is that a website or a movie?

It's a movie about the urbanization of the global population; it's available on Netflix right now if you have it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Have you seen Urbanized? There only one part that's really relevant to what you're describing, but that part is very, VERY relevant.

No.  Is that a website or a movie?

It's a movie about the urbanization of the global population; it's available on Netflix right now if you have it.

No. 

I'm not a movie guy, so I never bothered.  I will see if I can find it in some other format.