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A Real City

I came across a BBC article which made me go back to an earlier time when I was having a similar sort of conversation with a friend in SD. I was about to move to Chicago and that friend was telling me how great it would be since I would be moving to a real city now. My reaction was one of utter incomprehensibility and instinctive dismissal and they arose from reasons which remained mysterious to me for a long time. But those reasons have become clearer as time has passed.

There are certain people who move to cities like NYC, Chicago, LA, and SFO because these places offer them the employment opportunities that they won't get at places like SD. Those people I can comprehend. Then there are those who move to these places because they would like to enjoy the many entertainment options that these "real cities" offer and it is these people who should not be taken very seriously be reasonable people. I consider it important for an individual to strive to be happy and to take decisions which would enable that in his/her own way. However, it is exceedingly hard to achieve because of how shortsighted we tend to be, how ill equipped we are at evaluating the impact of our decisions in a complex system, and how easy it is for us to get influenced by others who appear to know but who are also merely winging it in exactly the same way as us. This utter lack of discerning talent that is shared by us all is reflected in the relentless string of decisions that we have taken throughout our lives which leaves us increasingly more tied up, more stupid, and more miserable. The only people who manage to avoid this fate to a minimum degree are those who are bound by religion and custom. In this case the accumulated knowledge of custom acts as a cushion for the poor decision making capability of the individual. It is the long range wisdom that the individual does not possess. The wisdom is most certainly flawed but for something designed to be universally applied, it ain't too bad.

But lo and behold, we now have a population which wants to move to a real city not because it provides it with a better means for subsistence but because of all the extras. There is in this case a subconscious application of choice which free of custom or necessity; a choice which, in my opinion, is hard not to mess up. Big cities most certainly do offer a lot of options but they come at the cost of a more lonely existence with more superficial relationships. The cost is severe but it would still be bearable if an appropriate transaction was made in lieu of it. What would be an appropriate transaction? In addition to the monetary benefit of a good job, the transaction should include definite steps which take advantage of the extra resources found in a big city and which lead to personal growth in some meaningful way. This is a complex choice which most people would never make properly. Instead they would move to a real city so that they could hang out at bars longer than usual, for the nightlife as they call it, or for other similarly pathetic reasons. They make, in essence, an out and out bad choice and are curiously proud of it. These people enthusiastically move to a real city which has real culture, perhaps even believing in their hearts that they would really use it. But in all probability the culture that they would find themselves limited to would be that which merely constitutes a distraction. They are essentially proud of a place which makes them more lonely, which dilutes their individuality among the other teeming millions, and in return consumes their entire existence in trivialities! That's a real city for most and they are proud of it. 

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