How the West lost WWII

While researching design from the Renaissance I came across a website of beautiful papers designed by Rossi, an Italian design house, using the traditions of the Renaissance. It reminded me of how much has been lost aesthetically since that time and why. The designs created during the times of royalty and aristocratic rule in Europe were based on the blossoming of life. Tendrils, flowers and curlicues unfurl infinitely in a manifestation of the underlying energy from which life emanates. The human form was ennobled and infused with beauty. This was part of their appreciation and respect for the beauty of nature and the boundless joy that fuels life. I want to stress this. Joy and exuberance are the true states of nature and humankind. It was also a manifestation for their respect for human ability to transcend their mere animal nature through creativity and craft. The architecture, the clothes, the trappings of daily life were created by craftsmen and artisans who were respected and admired. Who cared about their work. Not to mention the accomplishments of their artists, musicians, composers and writers. The philosophy is based on the idea that nature is endless, intelligent, it’s blossoming eternal. That life is a precious gift to be fulfilled to its utmost degree. The sheer magnitude, magnificence and variety of forms of life is a tribute to the scope of its need to exist, its ability to transform not just for survival but as an expression of joy and its own innate genius for invention. By contrast, with the fall of the aristocracy and the rise of industry and the people’s governments that control it there is no respect for creativity or craft, life is not meant to be fulfilled but to be endured, it is not based on joy but on suffering. Survival by any means, moral or not. We do not live in civilization, but rather the ‘jungle’. The design, the architecture shows no understanding of the energy of life, rather they are based on minimal input. They enclose but do not accommodate. They flatten rather than grow. They are based on cost. I’ve heard it said that Bauhaus architecture did as much to destroy Germany as the Allies did. As we all know when one is connected to the infinite abundance of the universe cost is not a concern. This, however, is based on an underlying nihilistic thinking that cannot imagine the vastness of the universe, on a destructive egotism that resents beauty, cannot experience joy, and would annihilate variety in favour of oppressive sameness. To paint our world in shades of gray rather than its natural living color. From this springs phenomenon like communism, fascism, fundamentalist religion. Philosophies that seek to ennoble suffering, justify cruelty, enslave the mind, limit the imagination. To de-evolve to our more primitive state. We may think the West won WWII but in fact it has continued on an insidious level, seeking to infiltrate society not through direct confrontation, but through bullying, the destruction of individuality, conformity, fear. It is supported by psychology, which instills self-doubt. It is deconstructive, like post-modernism. It is perpetuated by defusing discontent through drugs, both ‘medical’ and recreational. Our society is marked by an unprecedented use of drugs and ‘medication’. These ‘medications’ function in a similar way to frontal lobotomy and despite how innocent taking a small pill might seem, the damage is equally barbaric. A population separated from itself by separating friends, soulmates, families, preventing careers, by separating it from its own thoughts, creating mindless obedience. A population of slaves. Of followers. Of people for whom the extraordinary beauty of life is painful. The idea of redemption or purification through suffering is another of the bizarre concepts introduced by religious thinkers. It is, in reality, a perversion and shows a deep lack of respect for the precious gift of life. It relies on self-hate. Rather than improving people it renders them ineffectual and definitely prone to bad humor, violence, corruption and acts of criminality. It does not instill humility. It is with people like this that armies of hate are built. There is a phenomenon called ‘mobbing’ in Germany. This is a process equivalent to be surrounded by a pack of wolves whose only goal is to tear you to pieces. It is performed on people who are perceived as individualistic. They attacked on every level : emotionally, physically and psychologically. It is a sport. In Germany in the schools when two children develop special bonds they separate them. The children suffer a sense of loss and their hearts simply never have to chance to grow through these special relationships or blossom into knowledge of self. Instead they are taught adherence to the group. To community. To obedience. This is why groups like the Nazis developed in Germany. It is only through knowledge of one’s own heart that morality can develop. It is only through the ability to love that kindness and fairness can exist. Only through the deep connection to self that one can transcend the limits of self and experience freedom and a more profound connection to truth, life and the universe as a whole. Without it, people are unhappy and restless and in this state they can be manipulated and used by anyone promising release. We are told to surrender to a ‘higher power’ by people who are protecting their own power. History is marked by the desire to overcome tyranny. The problem is that once the oppressed group succeeds, instead of establishing a fair and just society they merely install themselves as the new tyrants. A government that is afraid of dissenting opinion is so because on some level it knows it has no grounds on which to stand. A strong person or system will encourage freedom of thought and criticism in order to grow and improve. Like the way the United States used to be. The way France used to be. Certainly now France has fallen to the Germans. The communists and Nazis pitted people against each other to gain control. They ruled through fear and horror. They relied on ignorance, poverty and the pent up resentment of the people to further their goals. These social tactics are very common today and ultimately serve the same purpose: The conformity of the population through disempowerment. The loss of privacy. The ‘coolness’ of underachievement. The tyranny of the people is no less barbaric than the tyranny of the kings they sought to be free of. Maybe worse. In the times of the kings there was respect for individuality, respect for the arts; people could escape the condition of poverty through special abilities. And, as I began this discourse, whose accomplishments revealed and affirmed the power of life. Now, those with special abilities are persecuted and considered threats to the ‘community’. A society in which the arts are stifled is not a free society. The arts are expressions of free will and are not affiliated with politics or religion. Like love. In fact, a government has to be made up of people who are able to grasp a larger picture. It cannot be made up only of people who function exclusively on a mechanical level – the workers – who are nevertheless invaluable and worthy of respect and dignity. I think the Greeks had the best idea: democracy. The ‘isms’ of contemporary society – fascism, communism, socialism – won’t bring the freedom from tyranny humanity seeks. We should heed the words of Sartre: ‘hell is other people’, Hemingway: ‘people are always the limiters of happiness’, Kundera: who wrote of the communists he knew as ‘those whose highest wish is to be able to see all around you the ugliness you carry inside. Because the world, which is beautiful, seems horrible to you’. And then compare that to the lyricism of the Renaissance.