I think I have finally begun to understand the way the US lines up in terms of political parties and/or presidential voting, religious belief/fervor, and how this all maps out geographically.
It's the weather.
Where you find more "liberal" enclaves, the weather's relatively uneventful -- there are from 1 to 4 seasons, some rain, some sun, a little heat, a little chill, and the occasional slide to something extreme just to mix things up.
Where you find more "conservative" enclaves, with one's religious belief and/or practice taken for granted by fellow citizens, you find weather that is positively biblical. There are floods, hurricanes, tornadoes at a moment's notice. When it snows, you don't get a winter wonderland: you get a couple of feet in 24 hours and have to dig your dogs a path to the potty so you don't lose them. While you may have four seasons, at least two of them involve someone's house flying down the road, losing your motorcycle in a rapid that used to be your driveway, or long stories on the local news featuring "Double Decker Doppler 8000" and cars stranded along highways, abandoned to a blizzard's appetite for destruction.
The weather and its vagaries may well have been the first impetus for our ancestors to find something greater than themselves to explain being pelted with hail from above: perhaps the "thing which is big in the sky" was pissed off about something and decided to beat you with ice cubes. Then, when agriculture became a part of human culture, asking for good weather meant the difference between eating and not eating, thus by extension life and death.
With this said: I'd love to see a study of religious beliefs and perceptions contrasting people by their region's weather: would someone living in a mobile home in Tornado Alley be a more fervent believer and regular practitioner than someone who lived in a mild area with little range of temperature and turbulence?
My money's on "Hell Yes."
Comments