"Our" meaning "Australia's"
Apparently I need a disclaimer (for the Right's PC brigade):
This article is not an attack on people's right to live in the city. This article is not a political argument. It is simply a philosophical reflection on how I feel about city life and a defence of non-industralised societies. If you like the city, I enjoy hearing from you, and you are entitled to your preferences.
I don’t like the city: I don’t like the concrete. I don’t like the fluorescent lights. I don’t like the fibreglass ceilings.
It’s all so fake. So hard. So devoid of any life. That’s what the city’s soul is made up of. An absence. And we breathe it in. We soak it in through our eyes. Until we become one with it. This nothingness. Til we feel numb. Machines going about our daily lives. Because that’s what’s easiest to do. It’s so easy to fall into that routine. And everybody does it to some extent.
I was walking through the Botanical Gardens just before. It’s rain-soaked. The green shines. The fig trees slurp. The leaves carpet the floor.
And I thought, why would you want to change this? Why would you build anything on this? I feel so comfortable, so happy here. So relaxed, like I don’t feel when I look up at the skyscrapers, or when I stare into the computer, or when I walk along the bitumen.
If I'd always lived in a society where we woke up every morning and saw trees and leaves and grass and LIFE, I would be happy. I would be happy with what I had. And I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t seek out progress. I wouldn’t seek out technological advances. I wouldn’t seek out how to make buildings. I’d just be.
I’d find out where the nearest food was and then I’d sit back, relax and marvel at the surrounds. I’d chat and laugh with my friends. I’d go for a swim in the nearby watering hole.
I think that’s why I feel an affinity for Aboriginal culture more than the white man’s culture. I’m still addicted to white man’s culture, but I am slowly breaking that habit.
Man I’m such a hippie!