City-State is a Misnomer

According to Humphrey Kitto, our language does not have the equivalent for the Greek world “Polis” which we currently translate into “city-state”. In his essay, Kitto tries to identify the characteristics of a Greek polis to demonstrate that the word is more inclined to mean state than city, even though neither comes close enough to the real meaning that the Greeks themselves intended.

He first starts to indentify different Greek poleis by their sizes and populations to try to get the “modern reader” familiar with the scale in order for him/her to avoid “confusing size with significance”. In his opinion, Kitto believes that the Greeks set certain parameters for a Polis to be a certain size simply because that is the way they preferred it to be. But the main question that the author asks here is: Why didn’t these cities grow in sizes, but instead the Greeks simply created new cities.

In the writer’s mind, the Greeks preferred to live and work in a city or town, while spending their free time in a city square or main social space. This in itself elevated the importance of such spaces in the Greek culture than they were located close to the acropolis which was more likely than not to be located in the center or highest point of the city. This however, does not answer Kitto’s main question. He then goes on to explain why the Greeks preferred to live this way, by giving economic and geographic reasons. But the main reason for this, Kitto believes, is “the character of the Greeks”.

To give the reader a clearer idea of what he meant, Kitto goes on to explain the word “polis” while trying to link its meaning to the fact that the characteristics of the Greek city, especially its structure and size, played a big role in the success of the whole empire. In his own words, polis could mean “people” and/or “state” in which every individual can play an important role in decision making. This, of course, would only be possible if the city remained within a certain size limit.

It is not perfectly clear what question the remainder of the article is trying to answer, but it seems that Mr. Kitto agrees with the way the Greeks thought of their cities in which they lived as one big family, everyone caring the most for the good of the whole community.

I personally do agree that this is a noble way to organize a city and thus organize the state. However, I do not believe that setting size parameters is necessary for the idea of each care for all to work. I’m also not convinced that the “polis” played a big role in the success of the Greek empire. From what I understand is a country is only strong if all its fronts are united, this reading implies the total opposite in which each city operated independently from another. I also would like to ask the question; how do the resident of a polis get away from the idea of looking for what’s good only for them and the people they “recognize in the streets”, to looking for what’s better for all their countrymen even if they’ve never met them?

New York City, if we considered Kitto’s explanation, would be the complete opposite of a polis. Let’s take Chinatown as an example. It does have its own characteristics, it is pretty small, confined to within a few block. It hardly grows in any direction, and has Canal Street as the focal point. I’m also pretty sure that the locals recognize each others and that no strangers are allowed in certain areas. However, I highly doubt that the individuals there strive to make it better for their neighbors first even if they are most likely to be from the same origin. Nevertheless, Chinatown still plays a big role in being part of New York City just like all the other neighborhoods, including other boroughs.

Most people in the states don’t necessarily care what’s good for the community, but do give the priority to what’s good for them first. But is that necessarily bad? Isn’t that the idea behind capitalism anyways? Is that each individual strives to make the best for themselves, in the meantime they will make it better for the all. It seems to be working for America I would say.

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