Who knows when some slight shock, disturbing the delicate balance between social order and thirsty aspiration, shall send the skyscrapers in our cities toppling?

The image of skyscrapers “toppling” after a “slight shock” frames modern urban civilization as precarious—held up by a “delicate balance” between imposed social order and human longing (“thirsty aspiration”). The line suggests that beneath the apparent solidity of cities and institutions lie suppressed desires and tensions that can, under the right conditions, trigger sudden upheaval. Read in light of Wright’s recurring concerns with racial oppression, economic deprivation, and the psychological pressure of constrained lives, the metaphor implies that stability is not guaranteed by architecture or law; it depends on whether a society can reconcile ambition and dignity with the structures that restrain them.