ENG 2150 Gimme Shelter: the spaces we live in

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

When it comes to mental life, there is no more of an ultimate goal than realizing one’s own self-potential. Buddha called it the Enlightenment. Abraham Maslow called it Self-actualization. Truly, they are the same concept.

To be enlightened is to free oneself of his own self-caused immaturity. It is the liberation from negative emotions and the rebirth of mental clarity and love. In the above diagram, Maslow illustrates the path to self-actualization starting from the bottom. In order to climb to the top, one must satisfy all the lower needs on the bottom. For example, one can not satisfy his need for love if he has not satisfied his need for safety. Similarly, one can not satisfy his need for safety without first satisfying the basic physiological needs of food and water. This path is perhaps the greatest challenge of mental life. Although the climb may take anywhere from weeks to years, the achievement of self-actualization is eternally and blissfully rewarding.

The Blase Affect is quite negative. Living in the city, for instance, we are constantly exposed to obscene and offensive materials, we become apathetic towards our surroundings and thus bored. I believe this is unfortunate, especially in the city. We have so many opportunities but are blind to them because we choose to ignore them because they are just everyday factors.

The blase affect also stops us from being helpful or considerate to one another. We are constantly exposed to the homeless and we eventually become immune to their presence. This is inconsiderate and inhumane. We don’t usually think about this but as we ride the subway or walk the streets, we are in our own little world and block out those less fortunate. We turn up our iPods and ignore the begs and pleas, we are bored and irritated. We notice how obvious this is when we witness a tourist notice a homeless person on the street for the first time and concern fills their faces.

It is almost inconceivable that the blase affect actually exist and to such a degree that we would ignore helping others, unfortunately it’s true and it is severe. We all want to reject the claim that we are personally at fault for this and perhaps it is true. The blase affect can be a result of constant exposure due to where we live. New Yorkers usually get the blame fore their attitudes but because of constant exposure to the same things, who can blame us? We are a product of the environment we live in and after seeing the same things on a daily schedule, we are bound to be bored.

In the Metropolis and Mental Life, we read about the blase effect. “Life makes one blasé because it stimulates the nerves to their utmost re-activity until they finally can no longer produce any reaction at all,” (329).

In the dictionary, the definition of Blase is –  “indifferent to or bored with life; unimpressed, as or as if from an excess of worldly pleasures”.

In life we can find many examples of what can represent the blase effect.

To start of we can talk about school. There are some people who enjoy school and some who don’t  and at some point I believe that everyone gets tired. We go through the same things all the way from elementary to college. WE deal with people, come across new information, bad and good teachers, and so many other things.  After a while we can expect to become indifferent. And everything after school also, which means a job. A job has us chasing the money that we want to use to enjoy life, but soon enough envelops us because of our hunger for the best quality of life. Day after day, we work and work, until the point where we just font want to and just don’t care about the job, but only what it brings to us at the end of the week or month. This all becomes boring at some point, and when it is your turn to enjoy life, we can honestly say we feel indifferent and bored with life.

NEW YORK CITY. The place to be. The city that never sleeps. Some would even go as far as claiming it is what makes America. “the heart of United states of America. But really its nothing special to me. Ive had been to places that are much more enticing and a thousand times better than New York City. This advertisement is probably the best representation given to people outside of New york. “Times square 42nd street, the brightest city with everything you can imagine.” Well, not exactly… although this city is great it is nothing like what they show in tv advertisements or tv shows. It’s nothing like on television or the movies. Apartments are tiny unless you’re very wealthy. There is no empty couch in a coffee shop waiting for you like on the show “Friends” and no empty booths to call your own like on “How I Met Your Mother”. Most people work their tails off to survive and the odds of 4 or more friends having the free time to meet up with each other every day is ridiculous. Then there are shows like Seinfeld where the majority of the cast own cars and drive around Manhattan like it’s the suburbs. But – who would want to watch a tv show about 4 friends whose schedules conflict every day and wait on lines or stand in a a corner waiting for a table?

New York City is simply nothing like what it is shown to be. Almost like a mask over what it really is. A community that is a slave to work and time. We see money as the goal of life. Honestly to me, NYC is the epitome of greed, wealth, need and selfishness. Like Simmuel says, peoples qualitative uniqueness and irreplaceability become criteria of value, everyone is striving to be an individual in a vast city like New York City but is unlikely and almost impossible. Everyone and everything is objective and never what it seems. Although there may be bad sides to a metropolis like New York City, I also have to agree with Simmuel that this is a place of freedom for people to define themselves. It encourages individuality and intelligence, forcing out closed minded people and way of thinking.

All in all, NYC isn’t a terrible place but it never lived up to all its advertisements for me. Maybe it’s because I’ve lived here all my life or maybe it’s because I’m living in the wrong part of New York. I’m sure time management is important and universal all over the world but here in NYC, the only thing that matters is time management, you have to be on top of everything or else things won’t work out as well as you would like.

“The Metropolis and Mental Life,” by George Simmel demonstrates how urban life changes mental life. The read was a bit confusing but after hitting some of the main points in class, it may have cleared up my understanding. The transition between rural to urban life is rather substantial, where personal interactions become impersonal and where feeling and emotion turn intellectual. As discussed in class, intellectualization is when one blocks out emotion, turning to reason or logic, a way to basically remain blind to reality. The urban life is governed by the objective, where everything is fact, there is nothing personal, as opposed to the rural life, where the small town where one can be subjective, having some sort of personal interpretation or experience. Because we are so bound to the city life, and as Simmel suggested, we are more or less robotic, sustaining our subjective selves, running around like little puppets under money hungry capitalists (at least in today’s society), taking away from any individuality thats left in us.

“Life makes one blasé because it stimulates the nerves to their utmost reactivity until they finally can no longer produce any reaction at all,” (329). This is just another way of saying that things go unnoticed, that there is no indifference. This goes back to the fact that people in big cities are in fact “mathematical formulas.” You can’t change the formula because you won’t get the same output. This pertains to the individuals engulfed by the metropolis life; everything is calculated, or a better term, measurable; time is everything. We can’t do anything different than what we are used to doing, this daily robotic routine, because we need to produce money, it must be our product, we can’t change it because we need that output. It’s just all about money and time, therefore taking away any kind of value, meaning or reaction, making everything superficial.   Because we have no emotional response, or any kind of regard to something that’s out of the ordinary demonstrates there is no more qualitative value within the community, rather a move quantitative based setting, a money economy. Furthermore, Simmel says, “Money, with all its colorless and indifference quality, can become the common denominator of all values,” (330). Money is the motive, at least in the city it is.

The military and all its branches are highly advertised, so much so that we are subconsciously influenced by them. The messages and symbols they portray create the blasé effect on the individuals witnessing them by means of repetitive imaging. Through display of guns,force, power, and bravery we become desensitized to the true nature and reality that war is. War is brutal, frightening, and filled with loss. The advertisements however, exemplify the military as a prestigious and honorary role. Although this is true and the members of our military are held in high respect,the mass public subconsciously grows to support efforts of war without regarding its tragedies. We become so accustomed to the military as being a “force for good” we forget that many  detrimental things happen to our soldiers and by them. We are conditioned to believe war is “cool”. As exemplified in the photo, most individuals would say they see an “epic” or “awesome” capture of the armed forces. Few individuals would say that they see a terrifying, dangerous or sad capture despite these soldiers are in an open area susceptible to enemy fire, mines, or another type of attack. We don’t recognize the wrong that can happen instead we see these images so readily in the news, ads, television, and video games that it’s seriousness is minimized. We loose the trepidation that war should often impose because of the way it is represented in daily life. War becomes simply a game, because we are so distanced from it and it is represented solely in its lime light and hardly ever in its atrocities. Therefore we become blasé and unflappable in our views of war, it simply becomes an everyday thing.

George Simmel’s “The Metropolis and Mental Life” places much emphasis on individuals and individualism of metropolis residents. He talks a lot about time and money and those things really are important to city life because in order to do anything in the city you need money. Time is also extremely important as everything runs on a schedule. The trains and buses arrive at certain periods of time and if you want to make that train or bus you have to be at the stop on time. However, one thing that Simmel pointed out was that the development of an individual is by internal and external stimuli. I believe that this has to do with different cultures inside of the city. The city is truly a diverse place with all kinds of people with all kinds of different backgrounds. The New York Metropolitan area could even be considered a melting pot when it comes to culture. In my opinion, the external stimuli is the exposure to the different cultures and ideas and the exposure to these cultures help shape likes and dislikes. In the city there is always a group that has the same interests as you, you simply have to look and find them. For example,  I like competitive gaming, so since I have the grand city in the palm of my hand, I can seek out like minded individuals and we can associate with one another. Same goes for anybody else whether they be classical music enthusiasts or perhaps comic book fans. With the exposure to different cultures and niches, one can develop themselves according to the culture or niche they subscribe to and become a true individual, yet part of an ever growing community.

Everyone in New York City wakes up to their annoying and loud alarm clocks and run straight into the shower. They usually grab a small breakfast and runs out to catch the bus or subway. It seems everyone in New York City is rushing towards their destination. People are pushing and shoving trying to get into the subway first so they can either find seats or have a spot they can stand in the subway. Many people are also rude, maybe because it is too early in the morning or maybe it is because this is New York City.  I also wake up to an annoying and loud alarm clock and usually grab a small breakfast before I leave my home. I see that the buses and subways are always overcrowded, I hate it. NYC is always noisy and hectic.

On the other hand, New Jersey is quieter and peaceful. The people there actually say “Hello” or smile at one another even though they barely know each other. It feels as if New Jersey has less people than New York City, or maybe its because NYC is congested and fast. I’d love to live in New Jersey or any other slow and calm city, rather than NYC. I love the peace and quietness.

After reading Simmel’s text on “The Metropolis and Mental Life”, it appears to me that he is making an argument on how an individual values time, and how money drives the world.. In todays society, time can be seen to be more valued then it ever was or it can also be that we are wasting it more then its ever been, all depending on the individual. The example we used was described in the text of how a pocket watch was to be kept in ones pocket. The significance of this watch is so that we are more punctual people as it demonstrates a great part of our personalities, image, and priorities. With regards to the Blase Attitude that Simmel speaks of, the city dwellers demonstrate this attitude quite nicely. Since time has become of such value, We spend about a fourth of our life in educational institutions, and then another half of our life working to make ends meet. This process is repeated over and over again and it brings out the blase attitude that Simmel describes. However, due to changing times, without seeking a higher education, it is impossible to become successful and wealthy. In our minds, we know that we have to continuously repeat the same procedures every single day, but at the end of the day, its the money that drives us to continue doing what we have to do.

After reading George Simmel’s “The Metropolis and Mental Life,” I realized that as urban residents, our lives are completely and utterly controlled by time and money. Of  course I had this notion beforehand, but reading Simmel’s piece let it really sink it. Simmel said that without time being used, monitored and controlled down to the fractions of a second, the metropolitan cities would fall into ruin and chaos. Time is everywhere, especially in the city. It’s in our phones, in our buildings, classrooms, on our wrists, and especially in the train stations. In such a busy, hectic city, time is a necessity in order to maintain a schedule and some form of uniformity and organization. The population is just too dense for people to walk around aimlessly without having a schedule or routine to keep. It would be absolute chaos. Not having to rely on time so much is easier in a rural life because you only really have to worry about how much sunlight there’s going to be in the day. The fractions of a second don’t account for much of anything.

Another interesting thing that I got from the reading is that we as city dwellers have come to evaluate people with quantitative value more than qualitative value. One of the first things you come to notice is how much money a person has, whether it’s by how they dress, what they buy, or what they do. In a city that is so engrossed  with financial value, the people are seen as just dollars amounts. So many people strive to become richer, to hoard more and more money, using whoever and whatever means necessary to gain more value. Punctuality gives value to people as well, showing that they care, that they are organized. GPA’s control a large portion of our scholarly lives as well. It’s intriguing yet disturbing to see how much quantitative values are growing to grip our lives.