the cultural criticism of an unhappy citizen
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"...But when cities or provinces are used to living under a prince, and his family is wiped out, since on the one hand they are used to obeying, and on the other have lost their former prince, they cannot agree on the choice of a new prince from among themselves and they cannot live in freedom without one. So they are slower to take up arms, and a prince can win them and assure himself of them more easily. But in republics there is more life, more hatred, a greater desire for revenge; the memory of their ancient liberty does not and cannot let them rest; in their case the surest way is to wipe them out or to live there in person..."
-Niccolo Machiavelli
what is perhaps one of the most interesting ways to spend time, or kill it, depending on your point of view i suppose, is to engage in the intercourse of human dialogue in order to fully behold the conversation of which it births. i myself have often become a participant in the connection that permeates the interaction for which i hold myself in total reverence, lest i miss those crucial moments that come and are gone in the blink of an eye: flashes of original brilliance that escape in the rapidity of a child's first fleeting steps, for example. the manifestation of such individuality, born and reborn through every word spoken and tangent traversed leads not only to the joining of specific horizons but the reuniting of souls, whether they have met before or not. it is true then, that benches are certainly the factories for this sort of social production.
So then, the stories that follow this introduction to those same stories come to you not from myself, but from those you will probably never know. Do not be disappointed; this is not sad, but happy! that you shall acquire a new sense of awareness, though perhaps not directly, is a fantastic construction that would not otherwise have been made known to you, had it not been for an acute desire for understanding and knowledge (mine, and so yours by default). it is thus that i shall reveal the world as it was revealed to me by those who dwell within its boundaries: the recognition of the people of the world; and likewise, the world of its people...
www.deathofcivility.com
