{"id":865,"date":"2018-01-14T15:15:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-14T22:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/?p=865"},"modified":"2018-01-14T15:29:41","modified_gmt":"2018-01-14T22:29:41","slug":"the-metropolis-and-mental-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/2018\/01\/14\/the-metropolis-and-mental-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Metropolis and Mental Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although Georg Simmel\u2019s \u201cThe Metropolis and Mental Life\u201d was written more than a century ago, its depiction of the contradiction between urban and rural society helped staple its relativity in the distant future. The writing discussed the individual\u2019s position in the urban setting and the cultural development inhabitants undergo. Sometimes, intellectuals struggle to find their purpose within the societal context as their intrapersonal culture becomes obscure under the bigger interpersonal cultural agenda. Simmel mentioned that, the modern culture is reinforced by the preeminent quality of objective spirit over the subjective, meaning that in an urban environment, objective consciousness will always come before subjective consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simmel focused on two forms of culture, one being the urban objective and the other being the rural subjective. He viewed the modern civilization as a dialectical relationship between objective culture and subjective culture. Simmel states that urban settings are suffering from objectivity as the metropolitan lifestyle guides intellectuals onto a path of degradation and superficiality. He wrote, \u201cthe growth of which is followed only imperfectly and with an even greater lag by the intellectual development of the individual\u201d (p. 275). In other words, objective culture is understood as the collective values of societal production such as art, economy, religion, etc. Subjective culture refers to the creative and intelligent characteristics within intellectuals. Simmel critiques that the metropolitan lifestyle has forces individuals to become less subjective and unique, even though it results in the regression of individual satisfaction. In the pursue for economic success, individuals have become one-dimensional and single-minded that they have neglected any forms of subjective enrichment through personal cultural ideas. Because the objectivity of big cities emphasizes on intellectual social interactions, the sensory output demand is so immense that individuals\u2019 mental life consists solely of intellectual, rather than emotional mentality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The term of objectivism, used to describe Simmel\u2019s claim of objectivity over subjectivity, originates from Russian philosopher Ayn Rand. According to Rand, the concept derives from the idea that human values are objective and that they are determined by the nature rather than an individual. Rand first introduced objectivism in her non-fictional writings in the 1950s, it is only reasonable to think that Rand developed her philosophical concept with some extend of relation to Simmel. The modern day internet is an accurate example of objectivity over subjectivity. When we open our computers, phones, or tablets, we are bombarded and stimulated with contents of the latest news, musics, and viral videos. We are immediately drawn into these new informations with overwhelming capacity and intensity. The taxation on our minds from these autonomous streams of novelty are so immense that we are stripped away of any energy for creative individualism through internet contents. Even if we manage to introduce new contents with personal ideas and subjective opinions, the internet immediate moderates and terminate such content because the internet only exhibit what the mass consumers desire. The current generation has brought upon a war to fight for \u00a0the oppressed subjectivity, people no longer wish to package themselves likewise in an objectively acceptable manner. <\/span><\/p>\n

Simmel stresses the importance of movement between objectivity and subjectivity. The movement of ideas and goods is what constitutes metropolis as a modern society, these movements can be from within or between individuals. So, my question for the readers is, what are some examples of exchanges or movements of subjectivity that can disrupt the objectivity of metropolitan settings.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although Georg Simmel\u2019s \u201cThe Metropolis and Mental Life\u201d was written more than a century ago, its depiction of the contradiction between urban and rural society helped staple its relativity in the distant future. The writing discussed the individual\u2019s position in the urban setting and the cultural development inhabitants undergo. Sometimes, intellectuals struggle to find their … Continue reading The Metropolis and Mental Life<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3164641],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-simmel-term-2-janfeb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions\/870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/socialtheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}