Friends are under-clustered. Why? - by Ben Southwood
Because you don't value friendship.
"it’s proximity to job, safe and pretty neighbourhood with good amenities"
Revealed preferences: that is what you value. Your job, then a high-status neighbourhood, in that order.
You don't value friendship, because the State told you not to value friendship. It did this because if you have friends you might care more about what your friends think than about what the State thinks. How disobedient. Render unto Caesar.
It's nice that the high-A crowd is noticing there's a problem, I suppose, but they will be wholly ineffective at doing anything about it, because peasants aren't lords. "Master master, can I live near my friends?" "No." "....okay...."
NB if cities weren't car-addicted, everyone would live closer merely by default. Maybe you couldn't trivially walk to your friends, but you could drive or take the tram in ~15 or whatever. Have to assume this is by design, that promoting cars was for exactly this purpose, until someone can prove otherwise.
In a mass democracy, most 'friends' will think what the state and the media thinks. The state rather wants people atomized, so that they are unable to form their own groups, and thus becoming alternative powers in themselves. The state and the media allows group formation only in terms of the groups they recognize and legitimize, and which suites their power agenda's.
ReplyDeleteIt could thus indeed be said that the state and the media has no use of real friendship.
Moreover, by forming a large all consuming state, for reasons of power, the democratic people have created a monster which eats at all their human relations, and thus leaves them powerless. Thus, the democratic people, all wanting to be king ruler, being so consumed with power, because of their own absurd methods are in the situation of being ever more powerless. Which might be instant-karma, those who abuse power will loose it.
ReplyDeleteIn the long term a healthy population with strong friendships is more powerful and profitable than an etiolated NPC herd.
ReplyDeleteThat [long term] condition is a real killer though. Also it applies discipline to the government. If you screw up too bad the healthy population will be able to push back. Who wants to be exposed to discipline? Aside from me, that is?