This song is essentially the national anthem of country music. It’s about rural working class White people. The people you see in this video are rural middle class people. They’re physically healthy people who make good choices and make good livings. Country life means physical activity, whether it’s work or recreation.
What makes this such a powerful song, and such a good representation of the people it’s about, is that “survive” here means multiple, overlapping things. Country folk learn how to survive the physical dangers that come with their (I could say our) physically active lives. They keep living their physically demanding lives because of a sense of purpose. They work together and survive as a group because of a shared moral framework. As individuals they’re well positioned to survive any hardship because they produce some of the most basic things people need to live. As a group they’ll always survive, because every country will always depend on people working in food production, resource extraction, and supporting industries. And when they need to, they use their health, courage, morals, and sense of purpose, to fight for their lives and values.
