Edit: found the article I remembered https://prospect.org/2024/04/24/2024-04-24-my-dinner-with-an...
> I brought up the ordinary comforts of kinship, friendship, craft, memory, legend, lore, skills passed down across generations, and other benefits that small towns provide: things that make human beings human beings. I pointed out that there must be something in the kind of places he grew up in worth preserving. I dared venture that it is always worth mourning when a venerable human community passes from the Earth; that maybe people are more than just figures finding their proper price on the balance sheet of life …
> And that’s when the man in the castle with the seven fireplaces said it.
> “I’m glad there’s OxyContin and video games to keep those people quiet.”