Why Rust Belt towns need revival, not abandonment
As the world has grown more connected through globalization and technology, not all parts of America have moved forward at the same pace. But do these places have to continue to sink into oblivion? What can be done to revive a sense of belonging and home in our particular corners of the world?
On “Zero Hour,” Chris Arnade, photographer and writer, sat down with James Poulos to discuss “forgotten America” and the importance of culture.
Chris Arnade spent years photographing “forgotten America,” by which he means states in the Rust Belt and other areas of the country that have suffered from the trend of offshoring and global trade agreements:
“If you go into a failing town in West Virginia or Ohio, they would point to the factory that’s gone because of NAFTA. The answer that someone like me would give — ’Well, just move’ — do you realize how insulting that is to tell somebody? That’s the source of so much of their meaning. It’s where they come from.”
On this last point, Arnade said, “I intentionally say that we are culturally groomed. Where you grow up matters. It teaches you, essentially, your concept of who you are and how you see the world. It’s not normal for most people to just hop around the world.”
Instead, Arnade suggests that we should celebrate our cultural differences rather than treat them as interchangeable parts: “[Intellectuals] are so dismissive of the idea that people might slightly be different. That we are all supposed to be the same. … No. … It’s something we should be proud of and celebrate. You can’t just get up and change places.”
To hear more about what Chris Arnade had to say about forgotten America, the importance of culture, and more, watch the full episode of “Zero Hour” with James Poulos.
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America was convinced tech would complete our mastery of the world. Instead, we got catastrophe — constant crises from politics and the economy down to the spiritual fiber of our being. Time’s up for the era we grew up in. How do we pick ourselves up and begin again? To find out, visionary author and media theorist James Poulos cracks open the minds — and hearts — of today’s top figures in politics, tech, ideas, and culture on “Zero Hour” on BlazeTV.
