What Do These Two Stories Have In Common?

The notion that fundamental structural change can happen inside the system that is primarily responsible for creating the conditions that present us with the very real problems described within each in the first place.

For instance, think about how easy it is to blithely decry stressful cities, and that they should be set up better, without considering the dynamics inherent with our current economic operating system that pretty much demand that there will be stress no matter what you do with superficial design specs.

Primary in my mind right now, certainly, is the the core element in Capitalism that focuses on insane, personal self interest, at pretty much the expense of everything else. The kind of personal self interest that has no imagination at all for the idea of enlightened self interest.

You could see the advantages of this mode of consideration if you took the time to consider that breaking barriers down so that everybody has a chance to do well will aid you in the long run. And a great deal more effort effectively if this is done proactively, instead of a long ways down the road.

If  people took the time to think it through, perhaps then there would be less incentive to, let's say redline districts, in the sense of who can get access to developmental information (which is both educational opportunity denied with an economically strangled tax base, and what capital, in the form of money, really is) because you might find doing so will return you a great deal less hassle, in the long run, than marginalizing people you don't like; for whatever reason you may have.

Chopping up neighborhoods with various construction projects, simply because your previous neglect made property values cheaper, in areas where you weren't previously making any money, may seem like a good deal in the short term, but in the end, all you are really doing is sowing the seeds for instability, insufficiency and, ultimately, the creation of a whole lot of desperate people. Upon which, of course, you are then tempted to conclude that the conditions thus saturating those you do not like, just proves how deficient those people are. Thus cementing in an attitude you had no right to make in the first place.

I am not saying that you have to like anybody. But you really do have to consider, whatever your complaints are against others, that making them desperate serves you no real purpose whatsoever; despite whatever short term gain you may get. And does, in fact, set up a whole lot of situations where stress is, though ever more pervasive, just a minor player in a whole host of really bad outcomes.

We are all now, in fact, in hot water, and hot air, precisely because of this insane dominance of personal self interests. And until we knock that mental barrier down, stress is going to be the least of our worries.

We Need To Design Less Stressful Cities


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