Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Fountainhead Revisited

 

We in the West used to build magnificent, soaring buildings and cathedrals because we could… and because we valued the buildings and what they represented. Not so much anymore. Why bother?

Once upon a time we strived for-- and respected-- excellence and beauty. We were inspired to create soaring spires atop elegant cathedrals, lofty structures reaching up to God and His heavens. But we no longer believe in God, or at least our elites don’t, so there is no need for the spires. And there is no need for the magnificent buildings, because our elites no longer respect excellence, they purport to disdain it.

The War on Excellence—indeed even simple competence-- continues unabated. It is, in fact, prosecuted with ever growing fervor by the perverted, demented, power-hungry collection of elites and their symbiotic special interest groups that currently control our culture and our government. The formerly United States of America are in grave danger of being permanently diminished, divided-- and ultimately destroyed-- by a vast cadre of pseudo-elites who were never elected and, if truth be known, serve only themselves. These deep staters, academics, and mainstream media members mock and despise those who believe in “America First” because, to them, “Me First” is far more important. (Though most will never admit it.)

And “Me First” is fundamentally incompatible with “America First.”

Just as Marxism—cultural and otherwise—is fundamentally incompatible with a free, democratic republic.

But how, really, does architecture matter? For the answer, look at Soviet Era block housing…and compare it to the skyline of Manhattan…or the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist.

As Winston Churchill once noted, “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

More to the point, whether we deem excellence a curse or a blessing will determine our fate.

 

 

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