A brief English language podcast offering an interesting word or phrase.
Do you have to live in the city to be civilized?
11Nov2004 Filed under: Quotes Author: sebrenner
Watching Around the World with Orson Wells I heard an interesting observation. It is probably dated and not very PC but it got me thinking.
Orson Wells:
Forgive me, I don’t think the Basques are totally civilized in the pure sense of that word because civilization implies city culture by definition.
None of the dictionaries I use listed a definition demanding or even relating to city living. But the wikipedia entry for civilization describes it as a “complex society in which many of the people live in cities.”
Now I grew up in the Republic of Boulder in Colorado. Boulder is definitely a city, but not in the same sense as New York or Tokyo. So I wonder if I am less civilized than people who have grown up in one of those large cities.
I was in Tokyo in August and they might be more civilized then me, but I have been to New York on many occasions and the word civilized isn’t one of the first words that comes to mind.
One Response to “Do you have to live in the city to be civilized?”
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A brief English language podcast offering an interesting word or phrase.
Today's Podcast is on hiatus while Scott finishes his law degree.
Olivier
November 20th, 2004 at 4:38 am
Hi,
Just listen to you podcast about civilisation, this orning… I’m living in France.
When talking about civilisaton, my thought is running to the ancient greek cities, that were well organized and in control. Everyone would live in harmony.
I thing that most cities in Europe are in a good balance, harmony. But I notice that when a city is growing too much, it begins incontrollable and balance and harmony get broken….
Surprisingly, Japan cities look like they fond a way to keep that balance. why is this not the case in big cities like in the US….. Ahum
Just my 2 eurocents
Olivier