The Contradictions of Cities

 I have a hate-hate relationship with cities. That is to say, I don't like cities. They are loud, dirty, uncomfortable, dangerous, cramped, crowded, ugly, expensive, stressful, and just generally unpleasant in all sorts of ways. Life expectancy city is shorter in cities. Life quality is lower. I do not understand why anybody would want to live in a city. (Though I could understand why someone would need to live in one.) 

Sao Paolo. (Picked a random point for street view.)

And yet.

And yet, what would we be without our cities? Cities are centres of culture: music, art, architecture, money, activity, endless possibilities of encounters. This is probably due to economic factors: lots of money = money for the arts. Hard for lots of art patrons in the country. The concentration of people allows for another scale of human activity than is possible at lower densities - for better or for worse. Side note too, it seems that the growth of cities is an almost uncontrollable force. People in cities tend to be more conformist, more dependent, think alike.

The reality of artificiality. 

In cities, we create our own realities (what does that say about our ability to create reality you can infer for yourself). They are often not pleasant. What's worse though, is when the are just that, pleasant. Pleasant, as you can tell, comes from pleasure. Pleasure comes from please, from the Latin placere - to be liked or approved. The Coney Island example is perfect for this. When we have the ability, we create replicas of reality, except "better". More Pleasant. The Inexhaustible Cow provides "better" milk. Electric light is "better". Amusement, entertainment. Don't eat butter, margarine is Better. Don't eat real meat, eat this fake meat. It's better. Don't get sun, take Vitamin D. Video games. Movies. Our own little (very little) reality. It's worse now. Don't interact with people - it's dangerous. People are dangerous. Stay homes save lives. Consume. Live in unreality. Lost my train of thought.

 

Ah, right, the steeplechase. Have you read the short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron? This control of unreality allows us to deny the reality of what makes us human, what being physically human in a physical world entails. Often, I think the architecture of cities denies this as well. A scale unimaginable by any person, uncontrollable, dwarfing the importance of the individual by the weight of the collective. People have the power to manipulate their experience of reality by controlling what they surround themselves with. Let's be careful to not surround ourselves by so much pleasure we forget what it means to be alive. What's the quote? "The holodeck will be humanity's last invention." Something like that. Essentially, once we inhabit this unreal world, we are subject to manipulation and control - not so much by others, but by our own impulses and desires. When all your desires can be had at the push of a button, what is the point of effort, of striving to be better? Power is a dangerous thing. 

This was just a collection of thoughts, not very unified. I think my driving idea is that yes, cities have a power. Let us use that power wisely. Let us remember that we must have an end - a goal. Let us not forget the ends for the means. 

PS I thought of a way to start codifying my thoughts. Hobbit Architecture - the value of the small.