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20100616

Corruption as Metaphor for Urbanization

Corruption is difficult to hide in the country than in a city.

For one of the reasons for urbanization is to mask corruption such that the most successful urban citizens are often called "city fathers", even though their current philanthropy is based on years of socializing with the "right crowd".

We can also see this in how people watch TV. In the city setting, usually people watch TV in their apartment buildings with their family.

Most people in rural India do not watch TV like we do, but as a group in a rural setting. For not all people own TVs.

So their corruption only happens when they move to the city during the struggle involved in earning a living whilst keeping a roof over their heads.

Thus, the New Left's critique of the State is actually a critique of urban life i.e. "Smash the State" actually means "Humanize the Process of Urbanization" and actually is a critique of rapid urbanization ("fast urbanization").

Most people involved in the counterculture movement tried to form communes in a rural setting. However, because public education does not include any education on raising livestock but instead focuses on academics, most of these communes failed.

More than likely, recreational drug use associated with the counterculture movement was a sign of corruption which was not heeded by the movement's advocates. It diverted attention from learning how to raise livestock and how to get along with rural society.

Corruption in India is a metaphor for the corruption of urbanization. Actually, the yogis represent resistance to urbanization on a rapid scale.

Tokyo gives us an example of the side effects of massive urbanization: the hikikomori kids are similar to the mentally ill in the West with regard to their social isolation, which is seen as reaction to being bullied for not fitting in with society. This isolation results in mental health issues.

Thus, the hikikomori effect is due to "fast urbanization" i.e. urbanization on a massive scale.

In order to reduce urbanization's effect on its citizens, concerned members of cities around the world have demanded "slow urbanization" i.e. urbanization that is held in check by red tape and bureaucracy with the city obtaining input from concerned citizens and nearby rural areas that supply food helping to slow down urban growth in cities using agricultural laws to limit what rural areas are used for housing.

Reform in city governments which allows for chickens and rooftop gardens is a step in the right direction, but must be accompanied by a "slow urbanization" manifesto.

So far, the spirituality community has given no such manifesto but a smörgåsbord of spiritual materialism.

Population and human well-being: http://www.wri.org/publication/content/8479
Urbanization benefits Asia but not Africa: http://www.aviewfromthecave.com/2012/10/urbanization-is-great-not-so-fast.html
Explanation of slow and limited urbanization of the Americas: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100810212943AAbyLcW

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