Tale of 2,000 Cities‪.‬

The very first city mentioned in the Bible represents both the best and worst of the urban world, the best and worst of humankind. In one of the most arresting passages in scripture, God watches the people of Babel rise higher and higher atop their infamous tower, until they challenge the status of the Creator Himself. "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city." But no matter how far we are scattered, we keep returning like eager prisoners to that urban locus of everything we are, everything we aspire to be. PEOPLE never seem to heed the counsel of the wise, who have told us now for millennia that the city is an unhealthy environment. From the days of the Roman moralists denouncing the extravagances of Pompeii, the city has been reviled for its excess, din, and filth. Ever over-excited, it has from the start sold its soul to commerce. And today, as in every epoch of its history, it lets itself be invaded by foreigners from far and wide.