I have isolated the city-experience within me and have examined it closely. The
idea of a city fascinates me. The formation of a biological community without a
functioning, supportive social community leads to havoc. Whole worlds have
become single biological communities without an interrelated social structure
and this has always led to ruin. It becomes dramatically instructive under
overcrowded conditions. The ghetto is lethal. Psychic stresses of overcrowding
create pressures which will erupt. The city is an attempt to manage these
forces. The social forms by which cities make the attempt are worth study.
Remember that there exists a certain malevolence about the formation of any
social order. It is the struggle for existence by an artificial entity.
Despotism and slavery hover at the edges. Many injuries occur and, thus, the
need for laws. The law develops its own power structure, creating more wounds
and new injustices. Such trauma can be healed by cooperation, not by
confrontation. The summons to cooperate identifies the healer.
-The Stolen Journals