Modern life is pretty lonely. What is a culture?
Does anyone else ever feel that you do not have an actual culture? I live in suburbia, the neighbors come and go to work, I never really see them. If I did , they would want to talk about how bad the Democrats are or want to know which kind of Christian church I go to. Althought the fact that 2 out of my 3 kids are black kind of stems that
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High density urban living is a pretty recent innovation of the 17th century. One that came with some initial disastrous results as well (Black Plague). Suburbia is really the return of the 17thc migration back to the village system. Unfortunately, no one has employment IN the villages and they repeat the migration into urban centers everyday. That daily migration is the obsolete element which, like the black plague will be sorted out.
My concern is not the economic/ecological one that you bring up (in which we are in total agreement), rather a sociological one. You can not deny that village life throughout millennia possessed strong cultural ties within the small communities. They had agreed upon rituals and celebrations. They had local food, that had local music.
I have lived in High density urban areas like LA, and it was in many ways just as soulless. There are the same fast food places on every corner of LA as in Hong Kong or London.
Thanks for the article links, I will read through them tonight.
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