Against the City of Noise

Imagine, if you will, a civilization lost to time organized entirely by its desire for intimacy with God Most High: intimacy both spiritual and proximal. Within an Ancient Near Eastern cosmology, this civilization could only satisfy its longing by erecting a great tower to join the flat earth to the vault of heaven. Such an undertaking would require the labor of many generations: united through oceans of time by a common purpose. That purpose would be always in view, for to exist, the tower would also have to be a city, one whose every stone witnessed to the telos of its people. This city would have to be self-sufficient: for instance, capturing rain in reservoirs to water its gardens and orchards. The form of every material object and process in the city would be determined by its vertical horizon.