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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mrbrklyn, post: 558182, member: 4381&quot;]The city is not as young as it may seem, at least by European standards.&nbsp; National Geographic once did an article on Megopolis&#039;s and their history and NYC was very early in passing many, if not most, of the hallmarks of a modern city.&nbsp; And age is not necessarily a worthy standard anyway.&nbsp; Additionally, I&#039;m speaking of a time and place and living in our time in this city might be the greatest in history.</p><p><br /></p><p>For one thing, don&#039;t underestimate how horrible conditions both politically and socially have been in the world until recently.&nbsp; Rome was a terrible place to live unless you were a member of the political class.&nbsp; Power exchanged hands by bloodshed.&nbsp; Half the city or more was slaves and another 40% was practically indentured servants.&nbsp; People couldn&#039;t get out of these cities fast enough.&nbsp; That was true right up to the middle of the 20th century.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The living standards in the West since WWII have no parallel in world history.&nbsp; Would you want to be a random citizen of 8th century Bagbag, 19th century London, 17th Century Paris, 8th Century Peking, 3rd Century BCE Athens, 20th Century Moscow?&nbsp; I don&#039;t think so because not only were these places all repressive on a scale we are no longer familiar with, but they suffered food shortages, poverty, and general intolerance to a degree that no modern Westerner would tolerate. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m telling you we are not only living in a unique time in human history, but a unique place and the fascination with America is not adolescent but recognized the world over by any thoughtful historian as the driving force behind the explosion of human rights world over, not to mention the crucible of democratic experimentation for the rest of the world.&nbsp; And NY has been the center of that.</p><p><br /></p><p>When you leave the US then you don&#039;t come to thing of your home country as a small player on a world stage of diversity.&nbsp; To the contrary.&nbsp; You come to really understand just how deep seated, ubiquitous and and far reaching American Culture really is.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ruben[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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