Simmel Synopsis

Outline

Georg Simmel's famous article "The Metropolis and Mental Life" was a groundbreaking
work in the field of urban studies and sociology of the city. The historical background for
Simmel's "The Metropolis and Mental Life" was the move from agrarian forms of life the
metropolitan ones in the wake of the industrial revolution. Simmel argues that the move to
the metropolis brings about a new form of mental life which are the result of the certain form
of human existence and interactions that happen in the city. Simmel is not interested in the
metropolis itself and man's mental life themselves, but rather their interaction. "The
Metropolis and Mental Life" examines what happens to a man, and humanity at large, upon
moving to the big city. Simmel talked about a sense of alienation and indifference that are the
result of too much stimuli that the big city hurls at the individual which is too much for his to
take. Simmel also talked about the instrumentalization or interpersonal relations under the
dominant mode of social relation in the modern metropolis capitalism.

"The Metropolis and Mental Life" discusses the individual's position in the big city urban life and his
psychological coping with its form of existence. For Simmel, the big city is dominated by objectivism
(as opposed of subjectivism, with the individual at the center). Human interactions in the metropolis
become short and instrumental, lacking the emotional and personal involvement of small
communities. The city's inflation of sensory stimulus coerces man into being rational and
instrumental in his social interactions, and he has to screen out much stimulus in order to
psychologically be able to cope with its rate. Therefore, the metropolis mental life are essentially
intellectual, not emotional. People are enslaved to time, working under the clock. Everything in the
city is measurable, qualitative value is reduced to quantitative and this yields what Simmel terms as
"blas" superficiality, grayness, indifference and alienation.

On the other hand, Simmel describes the metropolis as a place of liberation from the binding
mentality of the small community, thus granting the individual more space and freedom to
independently define himself. Urban indifference is manifested for Simmel in indifference to
difference, that is the incapacity to relate to differences between things (object of people). Things
have no intrinsic value which would make them more worthy than others, they are only measured
by the external objective value of money and time, and are therefore all the same.

For
Rationality
Actions that would be closely monitored or persecuted in a small town go unnoticed in the
city providing the metropolitans a freedom unachievable in the country. Simmels entire
argument is structured around the connection of all the elements of a city relying on one
another. The money economy, overstimulation, specialization of profession and personal
freedom all rely on and are born of the other conditions. Without clocks in the city
businesses crumble, goods arent produced in mass quantity, stimulation declines and people
begin to revert back to the country mentality.

Not emotional/Independently define himself

Simmel structures his analysis by introducing the primary element of the city as the plurality
of stimuli. He claims that from this gratification of the senses, brought on by urban buzz,
humans are fundamentally changed. This sets up the psychological blaz attitude where the
differences between things go unnoticed. In this inability or refusal to recognize things as
being unique or out of place everything is reduced to the quantitative value based on the
money economy. Because quality has been reduced to a number value consumers lose touch
with the producers of goods, people they would know personally in the country. Ultimately,
Simmel says, in the mass accumulation of bodies and objects people become numb to their
surroundings and in order to achieve a sense of their humanity, in a world that lacks it in their
personal daily interactions, their personality expands.

Characteristics of the modern society that lead to an increase in objective culture are
urbanization, division of labor, and money. Simmel purports that entrepreneurship in the
urban environment is a major factor leading to the increase in division of labor, rather than a
communal effort. With the increased commercial activity that followed urbanization,
individuals needed to specialize in a certain field or trade in order to obtain market share.
This focus on obtaining money reduces the amount of emotional attachments and intimate
ties one has with others.

Additionally, in the urban environment, there are vast amounts of social groups to choose to
engage with, both factors, money and availability of groups, allow individuals the freedom to
be a part of any social group. Although, this is not to say that the relationship or attachment
to these various networks is strong. It is instead, rather weak.

Against

But what about this point in time in which most of the people in the west were born in the big
metropolis, and did not migrate to it. Are Simmel's observations regarding people's mental
lives still relevant for people born 100 years after "The Metropolis and Mental Life". If one
was to think that humanity has somehow grown accustomed to massive stimuli he should
bear in mind that this urban bombardment of signs and meanings is exponentially growing
and we have to filter more, not less. Simmel argued that the other side of the metropolis coin
is that indifference makes you in a sense liberated from social constraints and allows you to
be who you want to be. Is this still relevant today? Indifference is definitely a trademark of
big city life, but is freedom?