Civilization isn’t business, it’s pleasure. It starts happening when you look up from your toil and use your senses to entertain yourself and your friends. Whether you’re making art or eating at a sidewalk cafe, it’s culture that burgeons, the contagious inspiration fueled by desire, not survival, to commune with your fellow man. Civilization is the force that makes things smell better, look nicer, sound more interesting than they have to be. But it can’t thrive unless people exit their homes and show up in public to gawk, politick, or traffic in gossip and ideas. When citizens can no longer withstand the unconditioned air between buildings, urbanity ceases.
As it simulates winter, air conditioning drives the sensory appetite into hibernation. It blocks the attributes of a summer’s day and eventually renders them insupportable.
