Impersonality in urban modernity is a positive achievement, not a loss.

Evidence

MF: I think there are severe problems at a libidinal level, like that. There’s a reason that people don’t want face-to-face contact. Sometimes there’s a value in face-to-face contact. There’s also a value in impersonality. The achievement of an urban modernity was the ability not to have to deal with face-to-face contact all the time. I really think this is deeply dubious line — because I suspect what is behind the claim that it has to be like this and that civilisation can’t carry on is this kind of death-wish and this desire to take us back to the kind of conditions of a Medieval world. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2196

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Lofland’s World of Strangers on urban anonymity as an achievement, and Zamyatin’s We on the value of impersonality versus forced intimacy. — connects to: The urban setting itself lends residents an elevated sense of self — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 971; Urban life requires identity visibility, not just shared humanity; The most inept city dwellers sometimes receive friendliness and protection instead of harm — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1028 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernity does not replace intimacy with impersonality but transforms it through distancing #responds-to (0.88) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 343
• Urban life requires identity visibility, not just shared humanity #complicates (0.82)
• Engagement with the social level, not avoidance, strengthens character. #complicates (0.80) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2001
• Urban competence rests on reading strangers’ appearances, locations, and behaviors #qualifies (0.79) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 938
• The most inept city dwellers sometimes receive friendliness and protection instead of harm #exemplifies (0.78) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1028
• Behaving oddly in cities can elicit kindness rather than rejection #exemplifies (0.76) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1020
• The urban setting itself lends residents an elevated sense of self #expands (0.75) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 971
• Urban life is possible because strangers remain categorically identifiable #complicates (0.74)
• Growing familiarity transforms urban public space into semiprivate home territory #complicates (0.73)