Why do small rural communities value stability and tradition, while large cities are cold, impersonal, and immoral despite the close proximity of people? Is mind control manipulation a factor?

This is very much the case. It is the best the Extraterrestrial Alliance can do to keep tabs on people. To have them in areas of concentrations has strategic value. It enables them to focus energies on a huge percentage of the population quite readily and, as far as the new plan is concerned for human annihilation, makes all the sitting ducks be lined up in a row and the ultimate implementation of this final solution more practical and expeditious.