“The idea of a city having responsibilities to its citizens larger than simply running basic services isn’t popular these days. The implications of this will seem to many socialist, and in Plato’s dialogue they become terrifyingly authoritarian. But the notion that the city has in its care our intellectual and even spiritual (though not necessarily religious) wellbeing is deeply embedded in our contemporary culture of museums, parks, libraries and education-even if people who believe this don’t feel comfortable simply saying it.”