Consider the principle of sufficient reason in the context of the development of technological infrastructure.  Only a broad-based adoption of technology could focus a sufficient amount of resources on the central infrastructure.  Perhaps, instead of seeing the end-gadget and the visual images  on it, as an end in itself, the point of the whole thing -- also see it as a mechanism used to tap the resources of the end-user towards the creation of centralized infrastructure.   

Went to the city's castle -- very ancient, has been held by a few empires over the last thousand years.  Extraordinary views out over the plain, which are also visible at the (much smaller) citadel at the opposite end of the insular channel at the confluence of the two rivers.  I try to make at least one visit there each time I visit here.  I much prefer the castles in Transylvania, though -- there's something very discomfiting about seeing signs for lurid exhibitions of medieval torture devices, given the events of the last fifty years hereabouts -- at least in the northern castles, I'm absolutely confident that they haven't been used for warmaking or carceral purposes for a few centuries.  One does get odd vibes.  But I suppose I'm peculiarly sensitive.  I still wonder a bit why people listen to orchestral requiems as art or entertainment.

 'Your righteousness must exceed that of the communists and the national socialists,' perhaps.

Whatever the merits of nature and nurture, the directly proximate environment does shape the person.  The traffic noise, the chaotic sidewalks, the scents of fried foods, the clouds of secondhand vapes.

Wealthier place aren't marked by these objective phenomena, and their residents seem to have a different general personality.  Persistent correlation can indicate partial causation.  Though having a lot of money can do other things to protect one's personality from the vicissitudes.

 This is perhaps why, during the republic, they looked across the river and built apartments there.  (Though curiously, they appear not to have extended the tram lines.)  There is a famous local novel about the old architecture of the city, the protagonist, a romantic madman, looks in horror through is telescope at the characterless housing growing on the other side of the river.  But there was green space, and planned development, and quiet.  These things don't cost that much, except in the context of the band of detritus around urban areas, where square footage is costly, neighborhoods are ad hoc, etc.  

One doesn't seek out sane housing for the sake of sane housing, as reasonable as that might sound.  The housing shapes the mind, and the sensitive spirit. One turns into a bit of a troglodyte among the detritus, vaping, etc.  

To their credit, they make it a point here to build sufficient housing for the population.  I've seen this in several post-communist states.  Whatever the many sins of the authoritarian state, it publicly preached a strong social ethic, and that ethic has persisted somewhat -- a very valuable residuum.

I can honestly say that I never encountered a law professor who appeared to care more for the object of their study than their own personal social standing.  And I was looking rather closely.  

That rule obtains in the academy generally -- the exceptions whom I've encountered have almost invariably been in philosophy or the arts.  

To be clear, I studied the arts to practice the arts, then found things in the field to be a bit off-target, to use the mildest possible phrase.  Then I studied law to practice law, and found the practice of law to be, with similar discretion, a bit corrupt.   When, finally, I turned to the academy, it was largely animated by a sense that it was the source of the fact that ideas were no longer guiding things.  It would have worked, but as it turns out, if you don't think that there is any truth to be found in the objects of study, there's apparently no need to preserve basic truth and honesty in the interpersonal world.  At the end of it, I was basically trying to play baseball in the middle of a fistfight.

Onward.  The old texts are still available, and they speak.  There's also the possibility of making art at some point in the future, and if I ever find a path past the gates of the law, I'd be able to use those ideas to explain a few things.