- 19 Feb 2017 15:21
#14777899
Victor Hugo once wrote:
"There are two things in a building: its use and its beauty.
Its use belongs to the owner, her beauty to everyone, To you, to me, to us all."
He wrote this in the 1800s, and it was to defend beautiful old buildings from destruction.
Fast-forward to the post-WW2 era, to Mies Van der Rohe and the highway networks that were built in European cities that were bombed, and North American cities that were destroyed in front of their smiling residents.
"its use belongs to the owner, her beauty to everyone..."
This was the end of altruism. There would be no more beauty "for everyone," and machines would revert to being purely about "use" (machines for living). Only the owner would have any importance.
Likewise, the expression "kill the street" was meant to indicate that communities and cooperation - two things whose beauty belonged to everyone - would be destroyed by cars and ugly suburbs, who only had a "use" for the owners.
Ugly highrise boxes, ugly suburban bungalows, ugly streets. Beauty was no longer important after WW2 because our owners - the 1% - decided that there was no point in giving any beauty to everyone. Beauty just makes everyone think they deserve respect and life quality.
"There are two things in a building: its use and its beauty.
Its use belongs to the owner, her beauty to everyone, To you, to me, to us all."
He wrote this in the 1800s, and it was to defend beautiful old buildings from destruction.
Fast-forward to the post-WW2 era, to Mies Van der Rohe and the highway networks that were built in European cities that were bombed, and North American cities that were destroyed in front of their smiling residents.
"its use belongs to the owner, her beauty to everyone..."
This was the end of altruism. There would be no more beauty "for everyone," and machines would revert to being purely about "use" (machines for living). Only the owner would have any importance.
Likewise, the expression "kill the street" was meant to indicate that communities and cooperation - two things whose beauty belonged to everyone - would be destroyed by cars and ugly suburbs, who only had a "use" for the owners.
Ugly highrise boxes, ugly suburban bungalows, ugly streets. Beauty was no longer important after WW2 because our owners - the 1% - decided that there was no point in giving any beauty to everyone. Beauty just makes everyone think they deserve respect and life quality.
***
The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite.
The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.
— Julian Assange
The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite.
The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.
— Julian Assange