One value I grew up with is a pretty old one, keep you nose out of other people's business. It was a good value and generally those who violated it paid a price. This didn't mean you couldn't be little nosy or engage in gossip, simply not to interfere unless there was an extraordinary reason.
Clearly, some people were up to no good but getting involved was usually a mistake. I think this is sort of the essence of city life. You can certainly try to make things better for everyone by donating or possibly stopping a fight if you could, but getting too involved in individuals' lives was not something you did.
Most of the people I grew up with accepted their neighbors without trying to judge them. Almost all them became Democrats although over time some changed. We lived with a diverse group of neighbors, in those days mostly Irish, Italian, Jewish, etc. It didn't matter, although in some ways it did.
I imagine, if you grew up in a small town, you didn't have this diversity. I really don't know personally, i grew up in a crowed city. Still based on TV shows and some movies it seems like uniformity was the value there. Go to the same church, school, work in the local industry, etc. Being different was not desireable.
The values you learn earliest seem to be the ones that stay with you the longest. I don't understand how so many Americans think they have the right to control their neighbors.
They shouldn't.
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