The Three City Problem by Luke Burgis
For most of Western history, two cities have contended for the human soul: Athens, which forms people through reason, and Jerusalem, which forms them through faith. Every serious account of intention — of how a person comes to want something and act on it — descends from one of these cities, or from their long argument with each other. Then a third city appeared. Silicon Valley calls itself a toolmaker, neutral ground serving whatever intentions we bring to it. But the third city is no longer a place beside the other two — it has become a layer beneath them, mediating how we reason, pray, work, and love. A technology that mediates our relationships doesn’t merely serve our intentions; it occupies the space where intentions form. If we are made by our relations, then whoever controls that layer controls the making of persons. Can the third city be inhabited rather than obeyed? And in a world where our wanting arrives pre-shaped, what would it mean to form an intention of your own?
Luke Burgis is the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life and his new book The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion. Previously Luke worked on Wall Street and built companies in Silicon Valley before entering a Catholic seminary in Rome where he considered the priesthood and religious life and finally turning to public philosophy, theology and institution building with the Cluny Institute. He is one of the most insightful writers today on desire and the formation of the person. He has earned a devoted following for his commitment to an original stance and his curiosity for real conversation.
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