I was talking with a friend a few days ago about how increasingly divisive American politics has become, and we got onto the subject of the differences between rural and urban America. My friend was prepared to lay down a definitive proposition, that the division between red and blue is essentially a division between city and country.

While I agree with the basic observation, I think it's not that simple and would be interested in finding research on the topic. Yes, if you look at voting patterns, urban areas tend to be blue and rural areas red, but there are so many variables that can be divided along those lines that it's hard to draw any conclusions. For example, minorities live in higher concentrations in cities, and minorities (particularly African-Americans) have voted Democrat. There are many similar variables that you could use - homosexuality, religiosity, perhaps education - to partially explain the cultural differences between rural and urban areas.

But the flip side of that coin raises an interesting question: Do like minds simply flock to certain areas, or is there something about the city that influences people to be more liberal, or something about the country that influences people to be more conservative?

I think our environment shapes our identities more than we're aware of. Some of the biggest dividers that shape who we are - religion, race, politics - are learned relative to our surrounding environment. Someone who grew up in a rural, predominantly white, extremely religious town will identify, individually and as a group, based on those surroundings. "Country boy" may be as big a part of his personality as his religion or personal beliefs. And as with most formative personality traits, he also identifies based on his opposite, the city. This is why many rural conservaties fear and cannot fathom the prospect of legal marriage rights for homosexuals. And why urban liberals have absolutely no idea why it is important for rural farmer to be able to have a gun collection.

I've lived in some of the most rural areas in the country, quite literally out in the middle of the woods, and I've also lived in the heart of major cities, and sometimes it seems like they are two completely different countries. But both my friend and I agreed, we were better off for having lived in both regions, and while we may not share the group solidarity with either group, we understand them both a little better.

Personally, I think it's a fascinating subject, and this is one of the reasons I enjoyed Sociology in college. Every action we take or idea we have, as individuals or as a society, can be represented by a number and plotted or mapped. The patterns we unconsciously form can be analyzed to reveal common elements in certain people and certain actions. Granted, there are always exceptions. There will always be liberals in red areas and conservatives in blue areas, but the trends that form suggest actions, ideas, and even beliefs, are not random or entirely individual. Somewhere in the numbers of our lives lies answers to human nature and the mysteries of society.