“Exactly like politicians. But also by the corporate world influencing buyers of their goods and services or other countries, influencing negotiations, or possibly, just possibly, the outcome of elections in rival countries,” Lilt said. “This class is focused on rural communities, as those are likely to need the attentions of motivated individuals like yourselves. But understand that these concepts lend themselves across all groups.

“In terms of rural areas, what was often a primary differentiator between the otherwise similar people the author observed?” Lilt asked the class.

“Morality,” another kid down front said. “It’s right in the title.”

“Yes. Morality. How?” she pressed him.

“Well, having a set a values gives a person a yardstick to measure others. If another person has fewer or looser values or even just different values, it lets the first person feel superior… higher in status. Meeting others with similar values gives that person a group to belong to,” the student answered.

“How about that? I go to church every Sunday and you don’t. Therefore I’m on a higher moral ground than you are,” Professor Lilt said to the class.

“But who gets to pick which morals are best?” someone asked.

“That’s a good question and probably covers a larger scope than this class, but keep it in mind. We’ll circle back to it eventually. In the book’s case, what did the author observe about the morality ranking? Was it religious?”

“It was more complex than that, but mostly economic. Who had jobs, who worked hard, what kind of jobs you had. If the jobs were traditionally masculine or were they considered feminine,” another student said.

“Yes. In the absence of easily observable differences, as the entire region was economically depressed, it came down to the roles and jobs, didn’t it. And you used an important word there… tradition. How often do people fall back on that word to reach a higher moral ground? It’s tradition… we have always done it that way… it’s part of our heritage. What traditions were valued?”

“Hard work. Physical labor in manly type jobs. It was, after all, a lumber community. Chainsawing trees, hauling wood, fixing big trucks and heavy equipment, running saw mills, driving tractor trailers,” yet another kid said.

“Yes, so here we have an isolated mountain community that was built on logging. Logging was curtailed, in this case due to laws restricting the cutting of timber that could impact an endangered species of owl. Laws imposed by the outside world. So there is an immediate drop in the economy and lots of people are out of work. What happens?”

“Well, in some families, roles shifted. If, say, the wife had a job, she might become the primary breadwinner. Others might have gone on welfare.” The answer came back at her from someone.

“How does the community feel about that?”