The city’s indifference is a virtue rather than a defect

Evidence

I am an unashamed cityphile. I would prefer to live in a city, despite the dirt, than in a rural paradise or honeysuckled small town. I share the concern of many of my contemporaries over the deteriorating physical environment, over the insane population increase, over the destruction of the earth’s life support system. I share with them some of their critiques of industrial society, of technology run wild, of sprawlin.g . suburbanization. But I do not share the antiurban sentiment which is increasingly a part of these concerns and critiques. I was reared in a small town in a wilderness area and have no illusions about the inevitably idyllic and utopian character of such settlements. The small town and the rural countryside may be sites of leisure, of contentment, of peace. They can also be sites of parochialism, of bigotry, of spiritual narrowness. The city may be harsh, but it is exciting. It may be cruel, but it is tolerant. It may be indifferent, but it is a blessed indifference. In sum, I share the Aristotelian judgment of the urban world: “Men come together in cities in order to live. They remain together in order to live the good life.” — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 5

Categorization

• XREF: ‘A blessed indifference’ directly reframes the weaponized detachment theme the reader is cross-reading with Cole — the same civil inattention that isolates may also liberate. — connects to: Extreme individualist critiques flourish precisely because cities breed them — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 760; Urban interaction rests on a hierarchy of sympathies, indifferences, and aversions. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 285; Conflict is a positive force distinct from mere indifference — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 276
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 5

Broader Connections

• Urban interaction rests on a hierarchy of sympathies, indifferences, and aversions. #corroborates (0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 285
• Conflict is a positive force distinct from mere indifference #contradicts (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 276