When City & State Are One (Part II)

When the city and the state are one, the focus tends to be on urban geography and urban economics. In a sense, the hinterland of the state is outsourced, and negotiations between the city-state and her neighbours create the embedding environment of countryside and sources of physical sustenance.

Atlantis used to have pig farms and vegetable farms. It still experiments with horticulture and minor agriculture, but the vast majority of its inputs are from outside. Atlantis itself is mostly tall towers filled with wizards and would-be wizards; even the peasants and farmers deal in minor enchantments and live in towers. Most of Atlantis now appears to be what some people might call a service economy: an economic state based mainly on the trading of services of one kind or another.

What has this got to do with education? Well, standardised quantitative education is an excellent tool for stratification. You can actually use grades to create a gradient, from those who do well in national examinations and will one day be priests and wizards, sorcerers and generals; to those who do not do so well and will become hedge-wizards and kitchen magicians, drivers and cooks. Note, however, that even a cook can become rich if he is a great cook.