Mediation makes latent distance between parties explicit and measurable

Evidence

Although a bridge connects two banks, it also makes the distance between them measurable; and where mediation is superfluous, it is worse than superfluous. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 3841

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures Simmel’s core insight that mediation transforms unacknowledged distance into measurable distance.
• XREF: connects to: The problem of mediation links psychological, social, and economic levels — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 20