Cities are built places full of people. Cities can facilitate our sustainability and foster our potential. This has always been the case for places we live in, even before cities existed.
As we become aware of the world, we also begin to interact with it. We become conscious through each other, just as we are born from each other, and this fact eliminates any belief that we exist alone in the world. We become attentive to what is already with us, and we discover that sustaining life is our innate purpose.
Our potential develops through our capacity to learn from each other. Since the dawn of humanity our communities bring partnerships, forming the basis for families and providing capacity for tribes. We familiarize each other with our shared interests, eventually becoming sea-faring and farming communities as our intentions for survival evolve into a pursuit for comfort and exploration. Knowledge becomes useful, and language becomes an important means to share it.
Our cooperative links resulted to empires, monarchies, and nations. The wise leader of the community meets the influential ruler of the capital. Positions of trust were once inherited by our elders, which became positions of power reserved for apparent gods among people, and were eventually granted to people that represent people. Authority becomes a byproduct of decision-making in organizations where communication is complex, and these roles continue to distribute over time. Our identities extend beyond just household and community traits, but also work specializations and relatable figures.
In modern households we find individuals, partners, parents with children, or a similar arrangement. And in developed societies you will find more and more based on affinity. And this makes sense – our choices have always been based on what interests us. Sometimes this is based on shared values or more basic needs, such as safety or acceptance. Household types are not mutually exclusive either, and can be based simply on our preferences. As we gain independence earlier in life, our motivations become more self-sustained, which consequently fosters our own sense of direction and collaboration.
Human qualities such as imagination continue to be the driving forces that advance the quality and development of human civilization. Social media and global communications have given rise to global villages, which have accelerated our ability to share information, learn from each other and self-actualize. After witnessing the potential of modern technologies, our homes have since become a system of cities founded on shared values and sustainable progress.
We continue to associate with each other based on what we like. Partnerships, families, communities, nations, global villages, and so on – these are all evolving extensions of ourselves. Even altruism can be seen as a self centered behavior, as our dedication to life also applies to the way we relate to each other. The key is in realizing how connected we really are. Cities are a physical manifestation of that connection.
This is a continuation from a previous blog post, which can be found here.
See more blog posts at arthurbgonzales.com/blog.