Modern Urbanization

Urbanization is a very real occurrence in our society today. In the world, 50% of the population lives in an urbanized society. Before I continue, I would like to present a clear definition to Urbanization. Urban means, relating to or concerned with a city or densely

populated area, and urbanization refers to the conversion of rural areas, to more urbanized ones. A key term associated with the word, urban, is industrial. Big cites, are far more industrialized, and henceforth, provide a greater distribution of the economy. Take New York, as a classic example. New York is a vast economical network, due to the large quantities of businesses and the dense population. Add to this the amount of money needed, to even survive there, and the situations force the general populace to be as productive as possible. The aim of urbanization is, in theory, to provide a higher standard of living. It is true that, to a certain extent, those urban lifestyles are easier on the body than rural living, such as operating a farm. It is also true that urban living provides a higher quantity of diverse jobs. However, often times, the jobs provided, do not produce sufficient income on their own, to afford the standard of living. Therefore requiring another job to just “pay the bills,” due to the higher prices of living. Urbanized cultures have access to a high number of services, public transportation, museums, arts, churches. It also puts all these things within reasonable distances. There is a problem however, and it has to do with the living arrangements.

This is a personal observation more than anything; in cities, the majority residents live in apartments. Now having, a parent as an architect gave me further insight into this. I was told that the reason, that high-rises exist, is in order to maintain the convenience of proximity, to urban services. Also when designing high-rises one must maximize the space that is used. This is done by either clever design, or by having the apartments, as close together as possible, usually both. All of these are superficial attempts at bringing people together, because the obvious truth is that few people, have even a moderate relationship with their neighbors. In fact there are few acquaintances or friendships formed outside of work. Add to this, the average person can only keep track of around 120 people. Yet, in big cities, there may be 120 people living in half of a high-rise. Not to mention that being out in the city, you will see that many people by walking a few blocks. How can we be brought together if we continuously walk by the same people, that we don’t recognize?

I was having a conversation earlier today. In it, I was told that people are around others for their needs and conveniences. If that is true, then our society has no use for the people but for *things* they produce. Yet, those accomplishments mean nothing when we die. We as a society worship tools(idols), and forget that there’s actually a consciousness using the tool. We are blinded, the economy is a machine, a tool, used by a few people to keep others in check, and the biggest illusion, is the fact that all we get, is the scraps that “they”, no longer want, yet we are content with this. Some of us think, “Oh at least it’s better than those lower class people.” It’s a cascade effect; the majority, at the base gets the least, whiles their needs, is equal to every other human on the planet. Yet, not everyone has equal opportunities. All because we don’t understand what love is. Love is not stuff; you cannot attach love to a thing. Love is a state of being, those who love, are drawn to unity, love is expressed by the action of unity. As in science, we can’t measure it directly, we can only feel it, and measure its effects. Doing something loving, requires that you be in the essence of that which is love first. We think it’s the other way around. Love is the drive in us toward each other, but it must be a natural unification. We cannot love if we are unified under false systems such as government or economy. Yes these artificial systems make us interdependent, that is a law of the universe which cannot be broken even if we didn’t have these artificial systems. Just look at nature, we have plants that produce for herbivores, which provide food for carnivores or omnivores, which provide food for decomposers. Hence, the balance of life is maintained by interdependency. Yet we as a society, for the most part, work for someone else. We have created collectively a hierarchy of dependence. Simply, because we give power to the conveniences we have constructed, and because of this, we inevitably give power to those who have power over the conveniences. All the while, we fail to see that it is fear, that drives these people to crave power over the conveniences, we have labeled needs.

In conclusion, I believe that cities are unnecessary. Our living arrangements should consist of independent clusters, which freely cooperate with surrounding clusters, without a centralized form government, outside of each cluster. Let us not forget that our early attempts, at having urban societies resulted in disintegration of culture, plagues, and horrible living conditions.