As you may have noticed, the world is undergoing a sea-change right now. The recent swearing-in of the 47th president of the USA, an utterly despicable man-child, is emboldening many other politicians with fascist tendencies to come out of the woodwork and join him in his crusade to regress to the days of patriarchy, war, colonialism and robber barons. We’ve seen this change coming for some time (Trump 1.0, Berlusconi, Putin, Orban, Millei, Meloni, UK Tories, or Ford the crack-smoking mayor of Toronto, to name but a handful), but now this movement is seemingly getting into high gear.
Politicians and businesspeople have generally always been shameless oportunists who will do anything to win some extra votes or make a few extra bucks. The highly offensive antics of Felon Musk or the about-face of facebook Zuck are merely strategies to generate notoriety, rake in more money, and gain power. No surprise there. What gets me, though, are the many other people all over the world who suddenly feel the need to jump onto the neo-fascist bandwagon. Even some architects, academics, and critics I once respected are now openly voicing support for right-wingers. What gives?
This is the most heineous thing about fascism: it creates a mob mentality that instills an immense public fear of the consequences of being singled out as ‘non-conformist,’ when that is precisely what lies at the root of any democracy: a diversity of ideas, constructive criticism, and indeed healthy scepticism and dissent. Fascism is the opposite: it does not tolerate any opinions, lifestyles, ideas, or cultures other than its own, and will use fake news, blatant lies, and witch-hunts to instill a scary mob mentality. That is why fascism is fundamentally anti-democratic. That is why fascists crack down on anybody who is not like them, especially influential journalists and intellectuals. The German concentration camps, it must be remembered, were originally built to round up and murder political opponents of the Nazis (mainly communists and socialists); only later were they used to round up and murder so-called ‘undesirables’ (Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies).
This is why I’m writing to you, my few but very dear readers: to let you know that Criticalista.com is not jumping on the fascist bandwagon. Here, you will continue to read texts that are critical of the privatization of the public sphere; critical of architecture as media spectacle; and critical of architecture that aggrandizes politicians or corporations. You will continue to read texts here that celebrate exemplary social housing, buildings that lower carbon emissions; and urbanism that seeks to improve the livability of cities for everyone. Feel free to label me a subversive democratic socialist.
Criticalista will not deny climate change, nor will it champion neo-neoclassical public buildings, nor will it promote the so-called ‘parametric style,’ which is just the latest corporate style. Buildings that achieve beauty through simplicity and a rational use of materials and energy will continue to be preferred over ones that pursue needless, expensive and wasteful complexity merely for the sake of complexity.
In short: nothing here will change until the fascists come and arrest me and shut it down. Always resist fascism!
Thanks for your readership, your comments, and your support over the years!
Criticalista 