The Managerial City: The City of Jest

In the 21st Century the cities of the world begin to diverge from one another. The divide is philosophical. Being contested are objective and subjective values. By 2178 the schism between cities is complete, the two diametrically opposed archetypes have been defined: The Managerial City of objective thought and the subjective speculations in the City of Jest. 

Order in the Managerial City is established by a continual exchange between electronic modes of representation and networks of electronic intervention. In this way the city is able to simultaneously monitor and alter itself. Lived experience is divided into measurable and manageable units, where speed and efficiency are ultimate values of the Managerial City. Order in the City of Jest is established by the strip. The strip includes at all levels, changes in its ideological skyline will be rapid and continuous. It barely maintains control of the clashing elements which compose it. Chaos, is very near. 

The engine of individuation in the Managerial City produces serious citizens. The serious deny the subjective tension of their freedom in the pursuit of absolute ends. They assume without challenge the absolute ends set by the managerial: speed, efficiency, and economy. The engine of individuation in the City of Jest produces adventurers. Each citizen embraces the subjective nature of their freedom, assuming no absolute ends. They throw themselves into their undertaking with zest, into exploration, conquest, war, speculation, love and politics. They hurl towards a hopeless infinity of new for the sake of newness.