Detail and decoration as antidotes to the demoralising designs of post-modernism.

You don’t have to be an architect to read between the lines.ⁱ You just have to visit Paris!ⁱⁱ Thanks to the vision of Baron Haussmannⁱⁱⁱ and Napolean III, the latter being the nephew of the great conqueror Napolean I, Paris is the most objectively beautiful city in the world.^iv

I know, I know, we’re not supposed to “trust” any images that we see online anymore, but that’s why these will be printed! So we can trust it duh! With that, since we’ve already had a little fine arts taste from this trip with the Rothko exhibition, here’s a little architectural taste from the global capital of culture. One hopes that dear reader will take home the perspective that the difference between 19th century timelessness and 21st century banality is decoration and detail,^v which we forego today at the expense of our sweet souls, and that no political leader in the world today is powerful enough, charismatic enough, wealthy enough, nor visionary enough to execute again in our current environment.^vi If that’s not a “hurricane,” what is?

Without further adieu:

Pyramids, eagles, lions… details, decoration, civilisation!

1. Tucker Carlson: "Moscow has not been degraded by postmodern architecture that destroys your spirit"

   Chris Cuomo: "You believe postmodern architecture is designed to kill your spirit?!"

   Tucker: "Of course." Cuomo: "Why?"

   Tucker's answer will blow your mind. A rant for the ages: pic.twitter.com/QDixKGGyu1

   — Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) March 14, 2024

    

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2. And area! The observant and accultured reader will surely recognise that a few of these photos are from Reims in Champagne. ↩
3. Haussmann was surely a trained architect, n’est pas? Actually not! He was a lawyer by training and a highly competent administrator by profession, one who could keep the politically messy and coordinationally complex tax of modernising Paris on-time(ish) and on-budget(ish). At least as much as construction ever is, certainly at this scale and with this ambition… ↩
4. “But Pete, that’s not what objective means! Objectivity is an immanent property that’s third-party verifiable, quantifiable, and beyond dispute!” Oh Timmy, you mean like who the actual President of the United States is? And no, I don’t mean Trump or Biden or whatever, I mean the figurehead vs. the cabals… but we digress. I say “objective” because Paris is the most visited city in the world (or close to it on any given year). And if you can name me another measure of objectivity that’s valid in the domain of human affairs, well, be careful what you wish for because you just might unintentionally unwind the entirety of “social sciences” with one fell swoop… ↩
5. Indeed, Minimalism – that most Procrustean of political and aesthetic beds – is rather overrated! Not least of all by yours truly all of 24 long months ago, at least as far as the political domain is concerned:
   

   So perhaps the West’s largely virtual violence will inflict enough damage to temper the Tsar’s future territorial ambitions. With a Russian domestic landscape now looking pretty fucking decimated – robbed of the freedom of movement, opportunity for gainful employment and basic material wellbeing that Russians had grown accustomed to in the more prosperous Post-Soviet era – the possibly sickly Vladimir’s attention must now also turn to the question of internal cohesion. He’s paid an incredible cost for this new/old land of his and he might not have the political budget for more military campaigns before his time runs out. On the other hand, his vanishing window of opportunity might push him to even more extreme aggression in his final chapter, eager as he may well be to burnish his reputation with one final push for the history books, but such outbursts of desperation rarely win practically or lastingly.

   Of course Russia now appears to be in a stronger military and economic position than at any point in the last 30 years, certainly in relative terms compared to the gas-less Germans and gassed-up Americans. Oops!

   Who could’ve predicted that the power of finance (including Crypto) and media/arts/culture (including NFTs) were but SOFT POWER, which may serve to complement and enhance a capable and competent military-industrial complex, but could never replace their true HARD POWER?

   With this in mind, we’re reminded that learning comes from thinking, which comes from being more clear and less vague. So get out there and make mistakes, kiddo! When we learn, grow, and move forward, there’s no more powerful, more sociopathic drug on the planet. ↩

6. Not Trump, not Xi, not Putin, not MBS. None of them. Those bygone days of civilisational and cultural greatness died long ago, ever since Republics and Democracies have been considered “close enough” to Monarchic Empires, and so political leaders not longer had to also be military leaders (like Napolean I and III) who risked their lives on the front lines with their men. Thus was proper hierarchy demolished and specialisation born, giving way to the spiritual dark age masquerading as a technological golden age known more commonly as Modernism.

   But the night is always darkest right before the dawn… ↩