Cities Are People Too

Back in February, I outlined the "nations are people too" fallacy, and proposed some axioms:

1) Nations are not living beings. They are organizations, formed by humans, with certain characteristics (notably the ability to control some territory).

2) Nations have no feelings; no rights; and no moral existence of their own.

Now that we are being told how "New Orleans has suffered", but we will "bring it back to life". Once more, then, slowly: Cities are not living beings -- they are labels of convenience given to groups of humans. Cities have no feelings; no rights; and no moral existence of their own.

Words matter. The words used to describe New Orleans matter because they will shape real actions: and if those words are focused on the imaginary "life" and supposed "suffering" of a city, the resulting actions will be aimed at these illusory targets, rather than at the real life and real suffering of the real humans we should be trying to help.