Urban avoidance demands sophisticated social skills, an irony of city life

Evidence

As the reader has probably already noted, to utilize body management as a device for avoiding the city, the urbanite is required to call upon a considerable amount of city know-how. He must not only understand the meanings of various body movements, positions, and so forth; he must have the skills to apply this understanding to his own behavior. That all this skill should be put to such a negative use is perhaps one of the great ironies of city life. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 869

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reading purpose’s claim that civil inattention weaponizes detachment — the observer must work hard to become invisible.
• APHORISMS: The insight that avoidance requires more skill than engagement is a sharp, durable observation about urban life.