Cities 07

the urban way of life is a physically close yet socially distant relationship between people. Urbanites are forced to rely on several people for their needs but these are mainly secondary contaacts. In rural areas interactions between people are important as are those of the people who provide the goods and services but in cities several people can provide the same service so you simply use the person for what they have to offer without caring.

While I was driving to work this weekend I heard a commercial on the radio talking about how there was a Valentine's Day sale at some jeweler and if one were thinking about proposing to their significant other now was a good time economically to do it. In other words, forget the love part, with the sale you can afford it. This commercial reminded me of Wirth when he said, "and there is virtually no human need which has remained unexploited by commercialism (Wirth, 103)." In the instance of the commercial, love is the human need being exploited. Something interesting to look up would be the statistical increase in engagements due to "holiday" sales.