February 25, 2005
gated communities: the retreat of humanism?
A new mode of urban life?
The link is courtesy of American Coprophagia, via Jodi Dean at I Cite. The picture is of a billboard in L.A. "corrected" by grafitti.
Tis a harsh comment that exaggerates too much. But the graffiti tells us to stay and while and think about what a gated community means.
Gated communities have traditionally been the wealthy homeowners response to the failure of law and order to deal with the crime problem in our cities. It is a retreat to enclaves behind gates from the life of the city was most marked in the sunbelt of Queensland.
The living behind walls and knowing your neighbors creates a safety zone for many for whom security is a prime concern.
Does it also reflect a nostalgia for the '60s suburbs and the fading life of the small town that provided a sense of community and a safe environment for children and to live among people who share similar values?
If so, then the desire for gated communities will increase to incorporate blocks of urban townhouses in the inner city.
So the postmodern city becomes a series of enclaves of stability in a sea of decay and crime. It is an example of inhabiting the city whilst declaring it uninhabitable. Are these gated communities an example of a "document civilization that is at the same time a document of barbarism"?
What to make of the graffiti, since physical torture by the national security state is not happening behind the walls? It strikes me that the graffiti's gesture to a prison points to the limits of a deepseated humanism, that appeals to the rationality and good will of everyone. It highlight how this humanism (eg., what is regularly given expression at Troppo Armadillo) is worn out like an old coin. Is that a fair way fo putting it.
Or, more philosophically, the process of nihilism has now begun to devalue the highest values of secular humanism?
This humanism retreats from the inhuman to live behind gates and walls. It is there, in a world that is safe, secure and unified, that one can read good literature and talk about education making us better people.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at February 25, 2005 06:57 AM | TrackBack