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Jul 19, 2024 β€’ 15 tweets β€’ 7 min read β€’ Read on X
Why did past societies build so much "useless" beauty everywhere β€” and why did we stop?

It might be a measure of a culture's health... (thread) 🧡 Image
Street lights are seen by everyone. But what about things hardly seen at all, like fittings on the sides of doors?

This was the kind of thing Victorian society cared about β€” but why?
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The mantra of the 20th century was to say that ornamentation has no purpose, so get rid of it.

But ornaments assign ordinary things meaning. They speak to the tradition or craft that produced it...Image
It might be something symbolic. In Mediterranean culture, the acanthus leaf means enduring life β€” so it was embedded right into columns.

Small details like this connect you to the past (several millennia in this case).
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Even something as mundane as street furniture can do this. London's curious "sphinx benches" were a nod to the arrival of Cleopatra's Needle from Egypt in 1878.

The modern, minimalist bench tells no such story.
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What about cost?

The Minimalists preached that building as cheaply as possible is virtuous. As Adolf Loos said: "The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects."

But what's fundamentally missing here? Image
John Ruskin's first principle of architecture has the answer: sacrifice.

Things should be costly (either in materials or the effort we put in) because it proves love and sacrifice went into it β€” for the benefit of all.Image
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Past societies knew instinctively that cutting corners should be avoided. They made everything from lamp posts to phone boxes markers of civic pride.

If we don't put effort into the small things, doesn't that mean our culture has lost something?
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If you cut out ornaments, you lose all the little things that make a place interesting.

Prague isn't beautiful because of its great monuments. It's all the "unnecessary" beauty: hand-carved statues and niches on every corner...
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Those old cities were the result of people shaping their environment organically over time, with a view to belonging there.

Every street corner tells a little story about its origin.Image
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The modern, grid-plan street corner says nothing. Corners are simply where curtain walls meet.

The streets don't really belong to anyone. Image
In so many aspects of life today, we're trying actively not to tell stories.

Companies no longer tell their complicated origin stories: logos must be immediately digestible and nothing more.Image
A world built on efficiency does this. When we forget about ornamentation, places and things become meaningless and monotonous.

Perhaps we've run out of meaning to assign to them?
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The great Gothic facades of old told a thousand stories.

Maybe the problem is we no longer have anything to say...
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More from @Culture_Crit

Feb 27
You've seen this series of paintings before, but look closer.

It contains a clue as to why civilizations collapse.

Hint: it isn't external forces β€” cultures erode from within… (thread) 🧡 Image
Thomas Cole's "Course of Empire" tracks 5 stages of civilization, from birth to eventual collapse.

Painting in 1836, Cole was warning the nascent United States of the dangers awaiting it… Image
We start with the "Savage State," where a storm is brewing in the air.

Men band together in the hunt for food and dance around a fire, the birthplace of culture. Image
Read 20 tweets
Feb 24
The Lord of the Rings does not take place on an imaginary planet β€” it's Earth.

Middle-earth is our forgotten past, before recorded history, when Eden (Valinor) was a real place.

The truth of Tolkien's world will blow your mind... 🧡 Image
Middle-earth is our Earth long ago, as Tolkien said:

"I have (of course) placed the action in a purely imaginary (though not wholly impossible) period of antiquity, in which the shape of the continental masses was different." Image
He even compared latitudes directly:

Hobbiton and Rivendell are about the latitude of Oxford, Minas Tirith the latitude of Florence, and Pelargir the latitude of ancient Troy. Image
Image
Read 16 tweets
Feb 19
Every aspect of life is being stripped of color.

Many have noticed this trend β€” but why exactly is it happening?

Something deeper is going on… (thread) 🧡 Image
Look at car colors since 1990.

Paint suppliers are seeing huge shifts toward black, gray, silver and white color preferences. 80% of new cars are now grayscale... Image
Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" made sets and costumes that are vibrant in reality look utterly lifeless on screen.

Muted color grades (that blue/gray wash over everything) are the new normal in cinema. Image
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Read 18 tweets
Feb 15
Today in 399 BC, Socrates was sentenced to death for "corrupting the youth" of Athens.

What did he say that was so dangerous?

He taught them to think for themselves β€” via 3 simple steps... (thread) 🧡 Image
These were the charges against him:

1. Impiety (not worshiping the traditional gods)
2. Corrupting the youth of Athens

Why, exactly? Let's focus on the second... Image
Socrates, age 70 at trial, was known for pushing the people of Athens to question their beliefs through dialogue.

It made him unpopular at times, especially when he made people (and political elites) look foolish. Image
Read 18 tweets
Feb 13
This mosaic is the biggest discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The earliest "Jesus is God" declaration from 230 AD β€” and it's just the start of what we've found.

Mega thread of archaeology that supports the New Testament... 🧡 Image
When this was found beneath an Israeli prison, it changed the entire narrative of early Christianity. The Megiddo Mosaic is inscribed with the following:

"God Jesus Christ". Image
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Scholars had long claimed Christ's divinity was a later invention, e.g. by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

But it appears that early Christians *did* believe Jesus was the son of God β€” right from the very start. Image
Read 18 tweets
Feb 10
There are 7 stages of spiritual growth according to Saint Augustine.

You can use his roadmap to ascend from a purely material existence to the highest state of the mind.

Most people get stuck at step 3... (thread) 🧡 Image
In 388 AD, Saint Augustine proposed that the soul's journey to God unfolds in 7 distinct steps.

His 7 stages also correspond to the 7 days of creation... Image
1. Animatio (basic life)

The soul starts off enslaved to the physical world. In Confessions, Augustine recounts his experience as a young man immersed in pleasure and ambition, while blind to the spiritual world...Image
Read 19 tweets

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