Sociologists on Westerns

Recently Carsten and I discovered that we have diametrically opposing view on the Westerns genre, which shows you that I am so bloddy open-minded that I discuss film even with people who've never seen La passion de Jeanne d'Arc. Like me, he has a training as a sociologist, though I should add that he's the kind of sociologist who owns a book by Adorno and quotes approvingly from it when I'm around (which he may or may not have done just to wind me up). So, how do those two learned men's views on Westerns differ?

He: Westerns typically take place in a world in which there is no full-fledged state around, so you are getting stories from a kind of proto-society in which small groups, such as villages, are left to regulate themselves.

I: Um, I dunno, I just don't like them visually. There's too much dust, and the architecture, and those funny hats. Main point: Too much dust.

So, which is more convincing? Eh? Eh?