"Blase Attitude"

What is a city symbolic of? Intellect? Power? Crime, poverty...money? A city can be symbolic of all these aspects, and each of these aspects has an affect on its inhabitants. Cities are widely known as centers of civilization; ironically they have only been around for the last 7,000 years of humanity's existence. Since cities are so recent to human development, why do those who live there appear much more civilized than most? And why do more and more people flock to cities?
In his essay, "The Metropolis and Mental Life," Georg Simmel takes a look at how all the aforementioned factors of city life affect the individual, and how they cope with it. The "blasé attitude" employed by most city dwellers is possibly what makes them seem more intellectual, more civilized than most. It is this coping mechanism that Simmel states helps them deal with "rapidly changing and closely compressed contrasting stimulations of the nerves." In other words, there is so much going on in a city at one time, that people eventually shut down and begin to ignore everything that is happening around them in order to stay sane in their environment.
So, what attracts people to this environment in the first place? It is where EVERYTHING is happening, all the time. People are drawn by the stimuli, the busy lifestyle, the nightlife, the culture and the diversity that can only be found in the city. Check out this piece by Kieran Healy http://crookedtimber.org/2009/01/11/the-metropolis-and-mental-life/ on the psychology of city life. Healy basically agrees with what Simmel says, but goes one step further in trying to prove that a prolonged exposure to an urban environment can impairs a person's basic mental processes. So are the stimuli that attract people actually dangerous? Or is the mechanism people use to cope with the stimuli dangerous? Quite possibly none of it is damaging, it is just a way of life so unique that many still find it hard to understand completely.