ladies and gentlemen one of the most basic physical needs is food no food no survival and for most of our history food was scarce today on the contrary there is an overabundance of food we don't think about it as we fill our carts in the supermarket but from a world historical perspective this is unique so what has happened the answer is of course technology as a result of technology for the first time in history food is no longer scarce in most of the world and when I say scarce I use it in the common sense
meaning of the word referring to empty shops and empty stomachs as a result to argue that today's scarcity of food is one of the most pressing and acute problems in the world would be a grave mistake like the proverbial generals we would be taking a past war for present war and remain blind to the real problem of today the real problem is the opposite of that of the past it is eating too much instead of too little our physical need is enough food not too little but neither too much during most of mankind's history the
worry was to get enough now it is not to get too much the right course is the middle way we need to say goodbye to all that overabundance of food if not by law then at least by self-control and temperance now food is a physical need could the same be the case with certain of our spiritual needs could we be waging a past war on this battlefront - and should we be rather be looking the other way to spot the real enemy of today during most of mankind's history the fate of the individual was closely
tied to the fate of the extended family without the protection and the assistance of this group survival was impossible Oh in his life to the group the group demanded the total commitment of the individual hence the individual was submerged in the collectivity to such an extent that it is questionable if one can speak of individuals under such circumstances the individual was nothing the group was everything indeed the patriarch himself of the group was not an individual in the full sense of the word since departing from the group's customs was unsinkable for him to now this
submersion of the individual in the group was problematic from the beginning the oldest books humankind possesses already tell us about the transgression of group norms by individuals apparently there is something rebellious in human nature something that makes us feel submersion as submission there is a tendency in us to flee the demands of the group and instead follow the longings of our own individuality of our own will our own convictions in short there is a longing us for individual freedom this is where the city comes in the city has always been a liberating entity away from
the family the village the countryside where everyone knows each other and watches each other where social control is suffocating and everyone is expected to be exactly the same and act the same as everyone else on to the city where no one tells me what to do or even cares where I have privacy where I can be myself and do as I like start lift macht frei this ladies and gentlemen is still our party pre we favor everything that enhances individual freedom and individual choice we oppose everything that smacks of the restriction of our individuality the
discourse of individual human rights which has turned us into something like a civil religion over the past three decades is the foremost legal expression of this party but it also lies behind widely shared moral values like tolerance and respect for difference and it is the fundamental norm to all institutions of democratic government including that of the city is such an absolutism justified or is it possible to have too much freedom and individual choice just like what one can have too much food I know this is shocking no wonder after all freedom is the fundamental article
of our faith and what I am doing right now is questioning questioning it to some extent so of course it's shocking about as shocking as questioning the divinity of the Quran or of Christ to those who believe in that let me remind you of something we all know deep down the groups we are part of are not just a burden that blocks our individuality they are also the foundation of our existence not just physically but also spiritually we need to be surrounded by people we are gregarious animals communitarians by nature we cannot be happy without
living in a community preferably friendly supportive long-term and rather intimate if we like it we are lonely and loneliness is one of the most miserable feelings of all it extinguishes also at a fever all lost for life now where do we find such embeddedness in history principally in the traditional village consisting of several intertwined families precisely the surroundings flat from by the individual out of a need for freedom flatware to to the city here we have come to the heart of the matter city versus village town versus country individuality versus community the debate is many
centuries old woofs versus Luce was a hot topic for the ancient Romans the Conservatives of all ages obviously prefer country village community and the Liberals the city the town individuality both fuels are wrong for both individuality and community are spiritual human needs they conflict that is true but happiness is possible only if we can fulfill them both the excess of individuality leads to loneliness and the excess of community to the choking of the individual so we need a middle way we need a city consisting of villages do you know what we used to have such
cities consisting of little villages the core notion here is neighborhood these were the urban equivalent of villages they were so to speak villages within the city but we still have neighborhoods don't we certainly but most neighborhoods of today are very unlike that neighborhoods used to be in former days in neighborhood was a place where people knew each other quite well where people watched over each other's kids on the street where there were butchers in groceries and bakeries and all kinds of other shops were people that are shopping where they bumped into each other and chit-chatted
the neighborhood of former days was a place where neighborly help was common and common activities were frequent all of which and much more affected a strong social bond a true living community now look at the neighborhoods of today would you see something very different I myself live in the sewers in the hague not even half a century ago this was proclaimed to be the homeliest neighborhood of the Netherlands today virtually all the shops have disappeared people down do their shopping in a big supermarket and in a big mall quite far away where they go by
car or they just order what they need on the Internet there are no common activities people in general have no ideas who their neighbors are hence they don't even greet when they pass each other on the street one lives there as a stranger among strangers and this is not an exception on the contrary is rather typical now this is not a good development spiritual and physical security and comfort provided by the neighborhood is by and large gone many people feel unsafe when they are in trouble or think they are in trouble they call in the
help of some public agency instead of their neighbors and of course it has been predicted it has predictably led to an enormous upsurge in loneliness and hence to feelings of depression which are often caused or enhanced by loneliness why did this happen well there are several courses of course but the most important again as in the case of food is technology more specifically the motor car the television and the Internet as in the case of food these technologies have changed life fundamentally take television in the era before television people sought entertainment and information from other
people so they went out into the street or invited people into their home with the coming of television both entertainment and information were readily available in the privacy of one's home no need to go outside and mingle with the neighbors moreover we are free to choose what we watch the same goes for the car in the internet all these technologies make us freer more independent they boost our individual choices and hence they kill community sure they provide us with with various kinds of virtual communities but as you know these are meager substitutes for the real
thing can we do something about it well the city of Rotterdam has recently decided they to counter the loneliness among its citizens its civil servants will visit every lonely person in town once a month that is clearly a very silly idea the government is not a plumber firm that can fix all social problems only social institutions can fix social problems what the government can and should do however is to help rebuild these social institutions that will fix these problems in the case at hand a community now how does one rebuild communities in a city how
do we regain neighborhoods as they used to be that is the question and it is an urgent one let me end with a thought experiment suppose the citizens of a city at some point decide that they will no longer allow television internet and cars so they prohibit them anyone who doesn't like it gets a large financial compensation and moves to another city what would happen most people in town will probably sell their car that will save them a lot of money no insurance no gasoline no need to save or loan for a new car but
more importantly children will be able to safely play on the streets again the motorways will be transformed into walkways and bikeways public transportation tram and train will improve a lot since it will have more customers the air will clean up and small shops will return to the streets because it will have become impossible to go do your shopping once a week by car in a supermarket or mall far away true these shops around the corner in walking or biking distance will be somewhat more expensive than the supermarket but remember that everyone saves a lot by
having no car the chitchatting will return people will get to know each other again also there is no television or Internet so entertainment has to be sought elsewhere well since people have no car they will have to find entertainment and then in the neighborhood so they will go to a club to their liking a sports club perhaps or a bingo club or a book club yes a book club since books will be will begin to be read again many new clubs and other social gatherings will come into existence where people will meet and come to
know each other and thus the social bond that was lost will be quickly re-established people will again look out after each other and each other's children and they will feel safe again and included in a community loneliness will be a thing of the past in some their happiness will increase quite a bit now people in the other cities those with cars televisions and the internet will hear of this city that has said goodbye to all that overabundance of technology what will they do how will they react don't you think that many people will want to
move to this city or that they will pressure their own City to copy its rules thank you very much
