[00:04.93]087. Living in Big Cities [00:09.69]Why are so many people so anxious to get away from the small town or village where they were brought up, [00:16.17]and to make for the big cities? They usually describe their hometown as “boring” or “dead,” [00:22.91]or - the harshest criticism of all - as “provincial.” [00:27.32]If we examine the question from a distance, as if we were viewing the whole country from a long way off, [00:33.87]we start to get a clue about what it is that lures us into the big cities. [00:39.21]The main point to notice about big cities is that they are big: there are a lot of people, [00:45.06]and there are a lot of things going on. If you look down on a city, literally from a great distance, [00:51.40]from an airplane at night, you will be struck by the incredible brightness of a city: [00:57.53]there are so many lights that you cannot help feeling that all the bright things of life are down there waiting for you. [01:04.90]But a feeling of disappointment will set in shortly after you land, [01:09.18]because you will discover as you drive into the city center from the airport that the lights are just that: [01:15.75]lights, miles and miles of street lights and neon signs. [01:21.39]They are not in themselves sources of joy and happiness: city lights are not friendly, they are merely lights. [01:29.53]In fact, the effect will probably be to make you feel lonely and isolated. [01:34.78]And yet the city lures us, because it is not provincial like the dead little town we have left behind us. [01:42.15]“Provincial” is in fact our way of describing not the town but the attitude of the people. In our little town, [01:49.35]we know (or think we know) everybody. And what we know about them is that they do not want to go anywhere, [01:57.02]or to do anything outside to normal routine of their everyday lives. Unlike us, they have no sense of adventure, [02:04.56]no longing for new experiences or new horizons. [02:08.58]So we look down on them, pity or despise them, pack our bags, and make for the big world which we know is out there, [02:16.23]where the bright lights are. Then a curious thing happens. We find a job, make a small circle of friends and acquaintances, [02:26.17]and move into some cramped accommodation. Gradually we get to know our section of the city, its shops and its people, [02:35.13]and for a while, we begin to feel at home. It is small enough, our part of the city, for us not to feel lost or anonymous. [02:44.08]We, in effect, create another little village for ourselves within the big city. [02:50.50]The ultimate irony comes when we rent a television set so that we can stay in at night [02:55.96]and watch exactly the same programs that our despised country cousins watch. [03:01.72]Soon we too become “provincial”, and others who live round us will be glad to get up and leave us behind.

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