Summary: Georg Simmel’s essay, Metropolis and Mental Life, offers insights applicable to both the modern man and the RP man. Here, I analyze the effects of the metropolis on the individual, and its ramifications for the RP man.

Body: Simmel’s argument begins with the notion that man’s specialization makes him “dependent upon the supplementary activities of all others”—working in society forces us to rely on others, with the BP worker reduced merely to a task. The metropolis takes a small town life’s “deeply felt and emotional relationships” and diminishes them into an “inconsiderate hardness”—this is why you see women dumping BP boyfriends and bouncing on a new dick later that night, and what also enables RP men to take advantage of hook-up culture.

The absence of direct personal engagements “reduces all quality and individuality to the question: How much?”—a question phrased in terms of money that all of us are forced to ask. To appear is ultimately far more important than to be, and the Laws of Power reinforce this notion. Moreover, the metropolis encourages a “life in boundless pursuit of pleasure” that overstimulates an individual, leading to a “blasé attitude.” In essence, the city life necessarily lulls a person into indifference—from this, it becomes simple to understand how women engage in the CC, as with constant stimulation, pleasure becomes boundless. With the endless lure of video games, pornography, and Netflix, we become bored, complacent.

Simmel then explores the lonely crowd phenomenon, as only in the city is it possible to be surrounded by others and still feel terribly alone. BP versions of us, as well as women, must grapple daily with this issue of friendship, as they are terrified of being alone—we, as RP men, instead agree with Sartre: “If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.”

The individual is then reduced to “a mere cog in an enormous organization which tears from his hands all progress, spirituality, and value.” As BP workers, we know this all too well—every Fortune 500 company does this to us in our 9-5 grinds. As RP men, we must fight to be indispensable, to be innately valuable and irreplaceable, more than a simple task.

Conclusion: The structure of the city influences how we think and live. Realize this and put it to your advantage, be it by understanding why others seem to not give a shit about you, or through recognizing the boundless pleasures that you must not partake in.