Renewing a passport in the city, or anything involving government at any level, can be a byzantine process that usually requires standing on long lines, occasionally to be sent home empty-handed. No line and my passport arrives by mail a few weeks later. Ditto anything having to do with my car, such as renewing my license, getting replacement plates, etc. Yet they are, if civility is inextricable from practical everyday experience. I still love the city.
The people watching beats anything I can see from my porch in the country. When one thinks of the benefits of urban living the arts — museums, Broadway, whatever; as well as shopping and good restaurants immediately come to mind. But what really lends a city its vitality, its greatness is the almost unconscious cross-pollination among people of wildly different backgrounds — races, religions, ethnic groups, income brackets.
In that regard, not just the sidewalks but also the subway, yes the subway, is an asset and a great equalizer. In fact, that experience has become even more precious as the divide between the have-it-alls and the have-nots becomes ever more egregious. And storefronts remain empty because of the hubris of landlords holding out for higher rents and competition from online shopping that drives bricks and mortar stores out of business.
There is admittedly much to be said for having a pharmacy, dry cleaner, pizza parlor and picture framer all on the same block. What if times when societies rejected settlement or slavery were as important as when those phenomena emerged? Huge cities from the 4th century BC where people moved between cultivation and foraging are being excavated in places like Taljanky and Nebelivka in Ukraine, while signs of vast populations with seasonal settlements and shared systems of measurement from at least BC are coming to light in places as far apart as Louisiana and Peru.
Some governed themselves for centuries without leaving any traces of top-down power like palaces or temples, while in other times these traces appear and disappear, with periods of decentralization that can be read not as chaotic collapses but as careful and intentional dismantling. Accessed 12 Nov.
More Definitions for civilized. See the full definition for civilized in the English Language Learners Dictionary. Nglish: Translation of civilized for Spanish Speakers. Britannica English: Translation of civilized for Arabic Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!
Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of civilized. Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. Huntington, S. London: Touchstone Books. Jones, C. Katzenstein, P. Civilizations in World Politics. London and New York: Routledge. Keeley, L. New York: Oxford University Press. Kinsell, K. Locke, J. Two Treatises of Government. New York: New American Library.
Lorenz, K. On Aggression. Macklin, R. Maddison, A. The World Economy. Marrett, R. Psychology and Folklore. London: Methuen. Mazo, J. Meistrich, I. Melko, M. The Nature of Civilizations. Boston: Porter Sargent. Mill, J. Robson, — Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Mozaffari, M. Nisbet, R. History of the Idea of Progress. London: Heinemann. Pagden, A. Puchala, D.
Pumphrey, C. Quigley, C. New York: Macmillan. Rousseau, J. Gourevitch, — Schiller, F. Edited by E. Goddard and P. London: Constable. Schwarzenberger, G. Keeton and G. Schwarzenberger, — Schweitzer, A. Translated by C. London: A. Civilization and Ethics. London: Unwin Books. Smith, A. London: T. Nelson and Sons. Sorokin, P. Social and Cultural Dynamic.
Originally published in 4 vols. Stark, R. Starobinski, J. Blessings in Disguise; or The Morality of Evil. Translated by A. Suzuki, S. Toynbee, A. A Study of History. Abridged D. Civilization on Trial.
War and Civilization. Selected by A. Fowler from A Study of History.
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