New York: Not the Star of It

New York is visibly, a very attractive city.  Who will not be dazzled by the lights or be overwhelmed by the hustling and bustling crowd while walking down in Times Square and Broadway?  New York is a city of conveniences.  Public transport is widely available through Taxi cabs, buses and subway trains and everyone one goes there is a deli store or a hotdog stand for the craving (which is a key characteristic of New York).  It is a city of practical, instantaneous desire and satisfaction.  One easily gets what one wants in a snap.  It is easy to be obsessed and to fall in love in this materialistic realm.  This, to say the least, is the tip of a greater iceberg.  New York is how I'd see as wrapped, garnished, ornamented and adorned in its fullest glory.  This is the city romanticized in movies, and to walk among its streets is almost surreal.

 

But New York can't be compared close to a Paradise at all.  It may be the so-called Garden of Eden of American culture with all its fruits laid for people to enjoy, but not without a price. 

 

In fact New York, in its many semblances, as a city of desire, satisfaction and materialism, may in fact be a city of sin.  Another reason is seemingly because it seems to bring the worst out of people. 

 

Amidst the skyscrapers and penthouses that glare down at you.  Amidst the fast-moving streets and crowd, one may just realize how the New Yorker can become so easily made insensitive.  New York after all is a city of great progress, energy and commerce.  To stop still is to commit a death of some sort.  One has to move along in order to survive.  People are subjected to this routine of non-stop working at the price of their self material satisfaction.  Because New York gives people what they want, it is really easy to become selfish. 

 

The subways alone concretize this.  In a way this public transport becomes a microcosm of New York society and culture.  How men will push women around in favour of subway seats and how there is a total lack of values and ethical regard clearly suggests as much.  Surviving New York is very much like surviving the subway because people will need to push and shove in order to take a rightful place in the milieu.  There are no rules, no forms of etiquette, no utter regard of one another.  This is sadly the result of a city in its highest urbanization and democratization possible.  People forget that cities are supposed to be for cohabitation and instead they clamour for more, for the 'I' than the other.  Freedom can be addicting and used very erroneously for personal satisfaction and desires.  Instead of acknowledging the existence of another person and realizing that resources belong to the whole race and not the self, people simply are ruthless in their words, actions and shoves.  Aggressive is one term for these rational beings who wanted more than one piece of a pie. 

 

This kind of set-up to me is very discomforting.  I may have access to the cities' salient features but I have to always be in competition with other people and to have to deal with this configuration everyday can be very exhausting.  New York extends the limit of human capabilities from the human to the downright mechanical which can make New York a very cold city.  Should I be given a chance to reside here, I would gladly refuse.  I'm not too willing to sacrifice my comfort just to quench my needs and wants.  There should be a far more harmless and painless way to do that.  New York forces you to allow and compromise with its pitiless and sometimes, discriminating people.  Because they regard too much of themselves and because they are empowered by democratic freedom, New Yorkers feel they can do whatever they want at the expense of the people around them.  They do not care of feelings or sympathy.  This I believe is the consequence of having a wealthy city.  Everything and everyone for that matter has a value or a price tag attached to them.  People like you if you are valuable and if you are not, you are set aside, ignored and looked down upon.  People unveil this rude, unwarranted side of them and are intimidating in this respect.  What’s most disheartening is that you don't do anything.  They just attack you, without any repercussion, without reason.  New York truly epitomizes how too much wealth, progress, urbanization, and freedom can be bad for you.