Neil Postman on Suburbanization

Once, a town square was where people gathered. They argued. They laughed. They saw one another grow old. Suburbanization didn’t just change the landscape; it privatized the public. The front porch became the backyard. The sidewalk conversation became the television monologue.

According to Neil Postman, suburbs are the architecture of disengagement. Every cul-de-sac a quiet denial of civic life. Every garage a little fortress of solitude. And as television grew alongside it, we created a world where community was no longer spatial—it was programmable.

And yet we wonder why democracy is fracturing. You cannot sustain a republic in isolation. You cannot cultivate empathy from a driveway.


Comments

  1. David Tyler Rand-McKayJune 20, 2025 at 11:57 AM

    Suburbs didn’t just sprawl. They silenced. They moved us from porches to backyards, from conversations to broadcasts. And in doing so, they taught us to retreat. Civic life cannot thrive behind closed garage doors.

    ReplyDelete

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