Why Urban Centers Outlast Empires | Samo Burja
Sat Aug 09 2025
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg and Samo Burja explore cities as civilization's most enduring institutions, examining their political dynamics, technological evolution, and role as interfaces between competing social forces and power structures.
Make sure to subscribe to Samo Burja's Bismarck Brief and the Live Players podcast to read analyses and briefs like this one:
Bismarck Brief: https://brief.bismarckanalysis.com/
Live Players: https://link.chtbl.com/liveplayers
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X / TWITTER:
@SamoBurja
@eriktorenberg
@turpentinemedia
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Key Highlights
Core Thesis:
Cities are humanity's most enduring institutions (5,000+ years), persisting through complete civilizational changes due to human co-location needs
Political Dynamics:
Cities vote left due to visible inequality and Democratic urban optimization
Republicans lack compelling urban vision beyond deregulation
Prediction: DC will become America's dominant city like Moscow or Paris
Digital-Physical Connection:
Social media platforms remain tied to specific cities (Twitter/SF, Instagram/LA)
Physical proximity still creates career advantages despite digital connectivity
Reform Strategies:
Moving coordinated voter blocs more effective than building charter cities
Charter cities work best in high-growth regions (Africa, Central America)
Current cities technologically obsolete - not optimized for autonomous vehicles
Need for "Refounding":
Cities require complete institutional overhaul rather than incremental reform
Political and cultural change must originate in cities, not countryside
More
Today on Moment of Zen, Erik Torenberg and Samo Burja explore cities as civilization's most enduring institutions, examining their political dynamics, technological evolution, and role as interfaces between competing social forces and power structures. Make sure to subscribe to Samo Burja's Bismarck Brief and the Live Players podcast to read analyses and briefs like this one: Bismarck Brief: https://brief.bismarckanalysis.com/ Live Players: https://link.chtbl.com/liveplayers -- 📰 Be notified early when Turpentine's drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess 🙏 Help shape our show by taking our quick listener survey at https://bit.ly/TurpentinePulse -- SPONSORS: NETSUITE | SHOPIFY | SQUAD More than 42,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102. Shopify is the world's leading e-commerce platform, offering a market-leading checkout system Shoppay and exclusive AI apps. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Get a $1 per month trial at https://shopify.com/momentofzen. Head to Squad to access global engineering without the headache and at a fraction of the cost: head to https://choosesquad.com/ and mention “Turpentine” to skip the waitlist. -- X / TWITTER: @SamoBurja @eriktorenberg @turpentinemedia -- Key Highlights Core Thesis: Cities are humanity's most enduring institutions (5,000+ years), persisting through complete civilizational changes due to human co-location needs Political Dynamics: Cities vote left due to visible inequality and Democratic urban optimization Republicans lack compelling urban vision beyond deregulation Prediction: DC will become America's dominant city like Moscow or Paris Digital-Physical Connection: Social media platforms remain tied to specific cities (Twitter/SF, Instagram/LA) Physical proximity still creates career advantages despite digital connectivity Reform Strategies: Moving coordinated voter blocs more effective than building charter cities Charter cities work best in high-growth regions (Africa, Central America) Current cities technologically obsolete - not optimized for autonomous vehicles Need for "Refounding": Cities require complete institutional overhaul rather than incremental reform Political and cultural change must originate in cities, not countryside