Idealism Vs False Individualism

527 Words3 Pages

It is truly a different way of living in Waldo, Ohio and it defies many beliefs of how people live their lives. In the article there are many ideologies prevalent throughout the entirety of the passage, but the two that drew my attention the most were classism and rugged individualism. Even in the first couple paragraphs classism is present for example, “where the upper class eats with the lower class -such as they are - with no discernable difference, thereby rendering everyone middle class”. This is not the norm in society typically, Waldo should have social classes, the wealthy should sit at a table, and the poor should sit at their table it is not right for there to be just one table with one class. Also, everyone is happy with being a …show more content…

An example of this rugged individualism is “even when agriculture is good, the future for farm towns is bleak” this goes against rugged individualism because everyone is okay with just making enough being a farmer, but in reality the people of Waldo should strike out and work to make something more of themselves. Van Creasap is a prime example of this agribusiness as he quotes “if he can get 10,000 to 15,000 bottles of wine out of the 3,000 vines, he’ll be able to pay the bills” Creasap is fine with barely getting by because he loves what he does, but really should use his business degree to get out of Waldo and make the money that he is missing out on. Many people from Waldo are worried about rising prices as Dick Makowski says “everything keeps going up except wages” people are worried about not being able to pay bills, yet everyone continues there same old job of being an average farmer. These people have the work ethic just need to put it to better use and achieve goals they didn’t think were possible, so paying the bills would be no problem. In Conclusion the people of Waldo need to make a change with their lives and get of this consciousness that the way they are living is