How do you survive/thrive in big cities such as NYC, and what is the city mentallity?

Question

It just seems so un-godly. Rushy, impersonal, cold, cut-throat, a perfect environment for sociopaths, highly intelligent predators, criminal-oriented minds, just all sorts of crazy people. I went into NYC yesterday to spend the whole day there, and I handled myself pretty well, lucked out to find street parking (for a few hours at a time)but from my experience, found many of the people to be down right psychotic.

Generally speaking, there are lots of opportunities, its a HUGE city, lots to do etc, if you don't mind the germs, people, not the best of air, ad the speed. Everything is at lightning speed there, and so are people and their mentallities. It's basically craziness, but unfortunately the negatives include,...

you always have to keep your guard up in a sense, you can't seem to really relax, something can happen at ANY time, you can walk in front of a crime scene even, it's just so unstable and crazy, and you can't tell who's a nice person, who's cut throat, it's hard because you have alot of stimuli there.

Also the city mentallity, what is it? from my experience it seems to be, every man out for themselves, you have to fight for everything, it just seems to be a very crazy and hectic environment, and most importantly,

COMPLETELY religiously devoid. It's so fast and so many people that it feels like this godless stampede of humans just marching about, many with no direction.

How do you keep sane, calm, collected, and even religious, in a place like this?

Answer 1

Surviving here came to me naturally; I've been living in NYC for as long as I've been around.  It's not something I can easily explain.  Obviously, you're from a small town where everyone knows and looks out for each other, and that's not the way we operate here.  A lot of tourists that come here for short visits usually come out feeling the same way that you do.

Answer 2

You're paranoid.  

In the years I've lived in NYC, only one person I know has been a victim of  tragedy or violence...and he was hit by a car *in the suburbs*.

And how do you know whether strangers you pass on the street do or don't have direction in their lives, much less whether they have healthy spiritual lives?

If you don't like the city, don't come to it.  

Answer 3

I too wonder the same thing. So many people, and yet it is so lonely. I believe the way to "survive" is to adopt the same attitude as everyone else. Put the blinkers on and just concentrate on your own life.

Answer 4

You must be scared of the outside or public or something? I went on a trip to NYC in 2004 and it was the best week of my life. IT IS fast paced, but that is what i love about city life.

Answer 5

Funny, but most mass murders and serial killers come from small towns. I guess the frenzied city, is better for you psychologically, than small towns, where everybody knows your business and people have tremendous pressure to conform.