When Michael's wife said "why do they get all this?" I immediately thought: they don't. A lot of them see the old architecture as being old fashioned and they literally prefer the modern art and architecture. Big chunks of Paris and other parts of Europe are hideously modern. The beauty will have to be fought for or it will be destroyed.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. Those in power who have the most influence on these modernization projects are totally disconnected from everyday people who are very often reactionary (talking about the French, especially typical Parisians), especially in terms of architecture or arts in general.
The acceptance of masks is an indication to me that our culture does not consider beauty at all. It's what bothers me the most and I haven't heard one other person making this complaint which is very discouraging. The human face is the masterpiece that we all have access to. I used to think this before about other aspects about our society like architecture but I think the answer lies in analyzing why people don't feel bothered that faces are being obscured from our sight. We know the virus is so small the masks aren't effective. If our society valued beauty in any way this would at least be a fringe issue but I haven't heard or seen one other complaint about this issue. Even in the ugliest places, if we could least see faces it would be a consolation. I don't think people prefer the modern architecture. I think they don't think about it at all, or it would be talked about. Do people open their eyes when they go on vacation or see a sunset? The idea that beauty is rare and you have to be far away to see it seems to be the idea.. or you have to be watching a movie? Does 'modern art' focussing on abstractions and ugly conceptual art have a role to play in this, or is it just another manifestation that shows our society has dead eyes when it comes to beauty?
Too many stupid Americans though. I don’t mean like low IQ, even though there’s plenty of them, but I mean the stupid individualist mindset. People are so obsessed with fiscal success and lack the complex motivations that nearly everyone else in the World has.
There is no policy that fixes this problem. It is a love for money that has destroyed us. The more you have, the more that is taken away from someone who needs it. This country could be fixed over night if the one's who stole most of the wealth would share it with the rest. It really isn't that difficult, but greed is upon us in a very sinister way.
@@terreneofficial I like your comment, and yet, would not portray what you describe as stealing. It's more like selfish narrow-minded hoarding based on lack of uniting culture and sense of responsibility. Us Europeans truly have preserved that, though it is under attack from precisely that Zeitgeist, which unfortunately despite many good things comes from America. Therefore then people look to the East. But they won' find anything there. All we need to find is what we have found in the Holy Land. Now it is just a matter of preserving-against all Evil. Both within ourselves and those with bad [deadly selfish] motivations.
Francis Schaeffer wrote a fascinating book called "How Should We Then Live", where he discusses, in part, the connection between beauty in art as a sign that depicts the rising or falling of a society. Art that is beautiful is an indication of a thriving society, whereas art that is flat, ugly, uncreative, etc. is a sign of a collapsing society.
There's another reason why our architecture is so ugly, it's meant to dehumanize us. Take Soviet brutalism for example. It's functional, but it's depressing just to look at. Our architecture isn't _quite_ that bad, but it's close. Buildings these days are all function over form. If your eyes aren't drawn to a beautiful archway or elaborate tile-work, then the only things left to look at are the products for sale or the computer screen at your cubicle. Even fast food restaurants are becoming this way. In the 90s they were vibrant and colorful, and each chain had it's own aesthetic. McDonalds had a unique look, Arby's had a unique look, Taco Bell had a unique look, etc. Now every single fast food chain out there has the same style of building, they all look like banks.
American architecture isn’t that functional because it requires a lot of asphalt for cars to drive and park everywhere. It’s super inefficient costing a lot of money for asphalt, cars and gas. We could have the same building square footage and economy for far less expense on driving and parking.
It is no coincidence that society has decayed, since financial sky scrapers, tower above cathedrals and the like. It shows we worship money above all else.
I am with John Vervaek in that I am not advocating a return to dogmatic religion, but it is fair to say, plenty of stuff could be way better thought out, in how our environments shape us, and how we embed ourselves in the world, and how we optimally fit to our environment for our survival. What kind of community do you have where everyone lives in a tower block?
The modern view on beauty is summed up by the famous, "form follows function." That mantra is the reason every modern building looks like a bland cube.
Such a good point about, usually the more libertarian minded conservatives, if you can call them that, where they have a sense of, "no one can tell me what to do", then get upset that other people act the same but don't have the same beliefs as them.
Yes, libertarians seem to forget that if we get the world they want, just like they can do anything, others can as well, and it will all just fall into chaos and ugliness.
We have zoning for autos. We have lot minimums, high restrictions, set backs, parking minimums, road width minimums. By law we are mostly living in asphalt which is never going to look good.
As someone from Britain whenever I go on holiday in Europe or just see American tourists in my own country, they really can come across as childish. This of course isn't always the case but I think it might be because the structure of European towns and cities is so different and the feeling is so different that many probably don't know how to act. You only realise the beauty of your own country when you visit somewhere like New York or LA which are giant concrete cluster fucks. Although many areas of Britain have suffered from the same mentality of American architecture.
beauty is humbling, doubly so when it's beauty our current societies have forgotten how to create it inspires awe, which I suppose is a childish emotion, seeing these giants so much greater than we are
I wouldn't put NYC and LA in the same category. There's a lot of great classically designed architecture in NYC. It's no Prague, but I wouldn't call it a concrete clusterfuck either.
It is strange. Because the nature itself has such a beauty. It is the same in Sweden. My son just came home from his first hiking in the "wild" up in the north. Untouched nature. The pictures he took are like the finest art. And of course it is. Autumn leafs, mirroring lakes, the northern light. God's on art work.
0:24 Beauty, draws you into Truth and Goodness 1:16 Logic and Moral Arguments fall, Beauty bypasses reason into the heart ♥️ 2:20 Appearance 3:03 Sense of Amazement 4:00 Proportion 4:32 North America is the Modern Country, very practical less beautiful 6:02 Orientation 8:07 Manifesting The Infinite 8:35 Charleston South Carolina
I think it should be something that could bring us together. I think small towns and suburbs alike are turning in to these disgusting shitholes, and we should all oppose it. I don’t get why liberals and conservatives hate each other. Aside from the librarians who are batshit insane, I think conservatives hate the ultra wealthy as much as the liberals do.
Albeit a Dutchman, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the '60s and '70s. I loathed the ubiquitous stroads, endless strip malls, malls, and parking lots. I left the US in 1986 for the UK where I lived 31 years. The British sadly replicated the worst of American practices; large volumes of cars and "car parks" fill their secondary cities--making them quite noisy, polluted, and ugly. In 2018, I retired and returned to the fatherland. I live in gorgeous, historic Middelburg which boasts a pedestrian and cycle friendly city center largely off limits to cars and with only a handful of small parking lots. Middelburg provides the fan of cities with wonderful architecture and memorable ambiance. Living here brings me unbridled joy daily. I walk or cycle each day. (I no longer have a car.) Am I in heaven?
I love that Charleston was mentioned! We're called the Holy City because no building downtown can be built taller than St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, and the city has done such a great job of keeping it's beautiful character.
I think the missing talking point is this. The US was spiritually founded by the puritan pilgrims who not only ignored beauty but repudiated any sort of art. Evidence of this is the lack of any artistic tradition until jazz in the 20th century. There are no great no great american artists in history prior to the 20th century aside from a bunch of writers. Everything of great culture in the US is imported( german orchestra music, Italian Opera, Italian Arquitecture , Every type of international food). and the culture they do export (Hollywood) while amazing in its medium is in its meaning fuzzy and cheap. In summary nothing comes from nothing, and fast progress has a price.
SO good!! Eye-opening and mind- opening, as always! I love how JP continues to paint the big picture in layers of luminous colours. It comforts me to hear confirmation that beauty leads to truth, since that seems to be the way in for many of us. Reminds me of Martin Luther: "The poor are as starved for beauty as for bread".
I think that aesthetic relativism paved the way toward the reign of the cult of ugliness. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", we are told.The mid 20th century artistic movements gave us eyesores such as brutalism, single family home suburbia and car centric design. Perhaps the thinkers of that time thought that our cities and buildings shouldn't have any culture and instead be empty canvases in order to equally welcome all cultures. If so, perhaps the intentions were good but the results are horrific. Nothing but an oceans of asphalt and soul crushing generic malls.
Modernity was the beginning of the end for any collective identity - belonging to something transcendent. Everything is banal and subjective. No cosmology of wholeness and god. Everything is functional and practical, an object to be used. It's all relative with no centre. We have become objects and that needs to change.
I was shown this video yesterday by a friend. It's a very new idea for me to consider. It is certainly, it's unhealthy that our central focus has become sports stadiums, shopping malls, amphitheaters, and centers of consumerism. I am a 100% unapologetic capitalist. But in all things we must have balance and moderation. This is the struggle of the human condition. When is enough enough. How do you get others to share that view. Such a strange thing.
I love it when somebody shows me a piece of post-modern, or straight up modern art, and then proceeds to tell me what and how to think about it. I simply reply: It's bad, deceptive and ugly.
I don't see this being only a problem in the US, uglyness. Go south of the border and see how ugly things is. But I notice something, planing for the cars is an north american problems.
North America is a young territory. Pioneers left an ordered Europe with it's beauty and struggled to survive and thrive, resulting in different priorities.
I see this was recorded before ghouls started losing their mind over 15-min cities calling them backdoor Hunger Games districts introduction. It really is all about human scale. Not truck scale. Want a community? Gotta be able to walk to your sister, know your neighbor and meet your butcher and baker. Otherwise you have people co-habitating the same physical space.
Before seeing this vid, I had the last song I heard on the radio in my head; Coming to America by Neil Diamond. It made me feel disgusted because it makes America out to be great, whereas it's not, it's ugly, even to the core
Lets just say without putting it arrogantly, we Europeans have seen this from the very start the problem with American cities not being beautiful, because you´re not beautifying your cities. Its all intimidating corporate high tech skyscrapers that´s totally avoid of any character and taste. There only a few cities and villages in America that do outshine the rest of American cities because people have communities that care for their city and villages and maintain them respectfully. I´m glad you Americans are talking about it, perhaps a social detox is in order to reflect on the mistakes in city planning and zoning laws and perhaps more emphasis on classical beautiful architecture with a small tint of modernity that suits the place.
I'd love to see Jonathan Pageau and Jay Weidner have a discussion. I wish Jay would make more films like Kubrick's Odyssey and have ppl like Jonathan on there.
Art and architecture reflects the soul. Beautiful people create beauty. And the inverse is also true. Beautiful people created Notre Dame. America's Church is the skyscraper
Even though it’s possible that the American peoples were purposefully subverted, I can see the validity in this argument. It’s not feasible to impose this upon an impassioned and ‘beautiful’ peoples in some entirely top-down manner. The peoples themselves have to design, legislate, build, and then _not destroy_ the ugly architecture. Knowles even inadvertently alluded to this with his mimicking of a reactionary conservative: “who are you to tell me what I cannot build?” And Pageau nailed it with his retort- ‘then don’t complain down the line when things fall apart’. The common person had to lack a sense of the transcendent significance of beauty to be reduced to their reactionary behaviour.
The dunking on people, debunking, etc. you see on the right shows the same iconoclastic spirit you see on the left. Too many conservatives give little thought to what they're trying to conserve.
The convertible needs to make a comeback. Perfect balance between individualism without being in a bubble. I want to cruise slow. I want to idle around in top gear. I want to fumble at uncontrolled intersections and need to make eye contact to get it flowing again and wave fellow motorists and pedestrians through and exchange courteousies. I want a friendly sounding horn and I want it to be easy to find shade to park under.
How come the French, the Germans, and others understand and appreciate this beauty, while we fail to recognize it here? Here’s my perspective. America is not just a country; it's a business masquerading as one. It serves as a mere vessel for personal greed, and the only "social" sentiment expressed here is rampant individualism, inevitably leading to unbridled capitalism. All of this implies a lack of concern for public space; America's infrastructure is deteriorating, and it's not a coincidence. What matters is not what we can contribute to this country or public spaces, but how these spaces can enhance our wealth. There is no social cohesion in America. Do you know what one of the most comical and sorrowful sentences ever uttered in American English is? "We're all in this together." No, Musk and Bezos are not sharing anything with the rest of us, and the rest of us harbor only one aspiration - the misguided one of becoming Musk and Bezos. For a brief period in the 60s and 70s, it seemed like America was on the verge of transformation into something better, more beautiful. Then Reagan came along, and since then, it's been a downward spiral into ugliness, selfishness, and madness.
compromise creates interest, creates sociability and inventiveness. Creativity flowers under restriction. Oh and get rid of the selfishness bubble that are cars.
Great convo - love Jonathan - without the Best Art -the Most love of Nature - the most gripping music and literature - imagination and dare I say the Magic of Gods glorius creation - Protestantism basically ceded the point of living to the secular world - it has to do with the “sola scriptoria” doctrine coupled with industrialization and the disintegration of community - if we have Christ we cannot fear the imagination and the beautiful - truly mankind and Christianity brought all of this on itself - We have to take responsibility for our mistakes and we must embrace the beautiful - those that are lost are on us - Christians themselves are as lost as all those who don’t believe - because in our sterility we lost God - blind leading the blind
The obvious difference that was not discussed is that the USA had Puritans and Anabaptists who influenced churches and architecture whereas Europe had the Roman Catholic influence and state religion. In Latin America and the historical Catholic parts of the US we see such beauty. Nowadays church is inside a boxed shaped warehouse
I saw those electric wires and thought they were beautiful. Maybe because I work in the trades, but I see the stuff that goes into a building, the electrical and plumbing and communications and air exchange and it's like the organs and arteries of a living thing, it makes the building alive to me.
Good engineering and industry does have a beauty to it. Quality parts, fine finishes, clean welds, tight fits. But the architecture itself should be beautiful. Organs and arteries are much more beautiful when they are properly encased in skin, and skin in clothes (usually). If your organs are exposed, not so beautiful.
I think you make a valid point. Beauty is not about “things”, its an expression of unity. It extends into every aspect of life. Its the proper balance between everything, and when we see it visually we call it beauty. Its not merely about creating things to look at, or consume, its actually a function of a unified body.
That's a lot of assuming about how someone else thinks. "Things" is just as likely a short-cut filler word used when trying to express your frustration that the feeling you have of being filled with beauty, the whole physical and emotional hybrid sensation that washes over you while walking through a beautiful old European city, is something you don't get to have at home. Many people have had the same experience. It's quite a leap to just decide "oh, she used the word thing, she's just a shallow materialist."
@@sunrhyze its quite a leap to put your own words in quotations and attribute them to me, you knucklehead. The point is that we - *we* moderns *all* think of the world as being composed of separate *things*. What was once a heuristic is now taken as a given. This way of thinking (really this way of *not* embodied *being*) is at the root of our inability to create beautiful buildings.
I assumed this would be all about how cities are bad but I happy to be wrong. Our suburbs are just as ugly and even less liveable. Despite my dislike of central planning a large thing like a town or city needs it to be truly functional.
@@SlashinatorZ that's the government's fault, maybe with a little collusion with corporations but in the end I'm putting most of the blame on bad government regulations.
I would argue Town Planning is the most American concept, the country is literally built around it. When a group of people settle a new place be it Jamestown, Plymouth, Charleston, Salt Lake City, San Francisco one of the first things the settlers have to do is determine parcels, streets, the relationship between buildings, where the church and public space goes, water access, waste. If we ever settled the moon, we would be asking almost the same questions.
The US used to have lots of nice inner cities, but a lot of them were bulldozed for the car in the 50s and 60s. Highways and parking lots suddenly became the future so the old buildings had to go apparently.
Its funny and a little contradictery but in Holland where I live everything is a bit smal, almost children sized. The ceters of towns are difficult yo reach by car so people do most things on the bike or they walk. Than you meet people, you look them in the eyes and say hallo. Keeping the cars out is in this time a scarry thing because of gouvernement over regulations. But I LOVE the freedom the bike gives me! I did everything on the bike even moving a fridge!!
Are there other examples of so-called traditional towns he talks about at 5:34 in the United States? There's a lot of human-scaled communities in the North East but they tend to be irreligious
It seems a lot of this has to do with the classic liberal political theory from Hobbes Locke and Mill. I’m just learning this now but Patrick Deneen and DC Schindler have great books on this.
I wasn't sure I understood the name of the neighborhood in Charleston that he refers to at around the 8:50 mark. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks so much!
I am just here to say, I will die someday but took the time to say... Michael Knowles about why America is ugly. Thats defintily the lowest bar possible. He is basically the face for why. Literally speaking but as a brand. Daily Wire. Laughable
north america's beauty resides in its wilderness and not its cities. this was known well over 100 years ago when grant and macdonald inaugurated the national parks in the us and canada respectively.
I don't buy that. The US has some really beautiful and unique cities but some of them are in state of decay and have been for years. There's a lot of potential.
It's no accident that Osama bin Laden perversely, and not without evil, aimed at the hideous World Trade Center monstrosities. I remember having the same dark thought when I first visited the city of Phoenix. Ugly beyond belief yet growing like mad. Sorry. I have strong emotions surrounding this topic.
I completely gave up on NYC, a city I used to like, when the tallest building was lit up the color of blood to celebrate the state's new legislation, legislation which permitted the killing of older _censored for youtube_ a city's tallest building points towards its highest ideal. "World trade" kinda sucks but it's tolerable. Sacrificing _censored for youtube_ is a different story.
I like your passion, but I don’t think skyscrapers are the main issue. I don’t really know what to think of them, but I think the strip malls, supermarkets, movie theaters, and fast food places are what need to be bombed. Of course without people in them. Skyscrapers are surely intimidating and lack the surreal beauty of Europes larger buildings, but despite the intimidating nature of skyscrapers, they are impressive and magnificent structures. Some of the newer ones suck, but the Sears Tower, Empire State, One World Trade are all works of art in my opinion. Besides nothing was there before hand, it’s not like we destroyed churches. In fact many of Chicago and New York have very old large religious buildings still. And one company does not own the entire building, most of them are used by several businesses and organizations. They’re essentially a public service as many of them anyone can visit.
I think it started a bit before the 1950s when we started making skyscrapers. Also America is only 200 years old,we don't have the same monuments and buildings in places like Britain,Rome,Germany,etc. Its the same way for Russians and korea too i think
Because Americans tried to secure their unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by reigning in the powers of the governments, but forgot to do the same with regards to the power of the corporations.. and even worse, they adopted an eleventh commandment; "Thou shall endorse raw capitalism". Now the Mamon (i.e. the Big Money) has taken center stage in the desolate soulless cities in North America.
They go hand in hand. We should bring back asylums of some kind, Daniel Larson is a mascot for our failing mental health system. Getting rid of car culture & building 15 minute cities would be a big step towards fixing mental health
@@ashraine6684 Canada and USA are also both, Roman Corporations, under the British Crown and in the Holy Roman Empire . Read it and weap. Deny it all you want Facts are Facts
This is all true up to a point, but I think he's missing something as well. Or maybe he just didn't want to talk about it because it could offend people. But the reality is that America was ugly even before the car, though I agree the invention of the car has not helped. But we've been ugly since the start and will remain ugly. Why? Because America was founded upon Protestant theology. Protestantism is very iconoclastic. Yes, I know that not every single denomination is iconoclastic, but even the denominations that are not iconoclastic still do not take beauty as seriously as the Orthodox or Catholics. When you have a whole society full of Protestants building cities from the ground up, you're going to get ugly stripped down buildings that create ugly stripped down cities. Catholics in the Americas haven't had the wealth that America has had. Yet with less resources than American Protestants, they've still built more beautiful cities. Compare a town like San Miguel de Allende or even a poor city like Oaxaca Mexico to a wealthy city like NYC. NYC has way more wealth but the center is banal and ugly, yet Oaxaca's center is much prettier.
Agree mostly on beauty....but Christ in the Bible is said to be , paraphrasing, plain in sight , not really probably what most would find handsome, pretty or very attractive...
Even though the car is a big factor in the loss of this sense of community, it doesn't seem possible to return to that past unity (even if cars disappeared) unless we have a common project and common values (religion)
Wait, I think the highway interchanges are beautiful -- graceful, geometric, interweaving. And many glass towers are very beautiful, and cities sculpt their skylines to be genuinely beautiful.
About 1:20 Knowles: I guess I can make some logical reasoned argument, but that might elude some people or turn them off, or maybe they're just not interested... Pageau handles it in his elegant way, but right here i would turn the question back on Knowles Have you asked yourself why people can't hear you? What have you done to build trust with them in the past? Do your words indicate that you understand them and their concerns? Has your advice in the past been if benefit to them? Have you listened to their questions or objections in the past? No. Conservatives shovel horse manure about values and culture while living as parasites serving bigger parasites.
![Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) [ST05]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ORzNZUeUHAM/mqdefault.jpg)
![🔴 ฟุตบอลแชมป์กีฬา 7HD แชมเปียน คัพ 2024 [รอบ 8 ทีมสุดท้าย] - ช่วงบ่าย](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/M0S_ReCIkxg/mqdefault.jpg)
Jonathan Pageau really is a gift.
to whom? your ego?
@@je-freenorman7787 seriously? LOL
I think he's great, and his brother is pretty great to hear also.
@@RunninUpThatHillh Ok, I just think its time we let go of religion.
@@RunninUpThatHillh Enough of the ego mania , we all deserve it
When Michael's wife said "why do they get all this?" I immediately thought: they don't. A lot of them see the old architecture as being old fashioned and they literally prefer the modern art and architecture. Big chunks of Paris and other parts of Europe are hideously modern. The beauty will have to be fought for or it will be destroyed.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. Those in power who have the most influence on these modernization projects are totally disconnected from everyday people who are very often reactionary (talking about the French, especially typical Parisians), especially in terms of architecture or arts in general.
Nah lol.
The acceptance of masks is an indication to me that our culture does not consider beauty at all. It's what bothers me the most and I haven't heard one other person making this complaint which is very discouraging. The human face is the masterpiece that we all have access to. I used to think this before about other aspects about our society like architecture but I think the answer lies in analyzing why people don't feel bothered that faces are being obscured from our sight.
We know the virus is so small the masks aren't effective. If our society valued beauty in any way this would at least be a fringe issue but I haven't heard or seen one other complaint about this issue. Even in the ugliest places, if we could least see faces it would be a consolation.
I don't think people prefer the modern architecture. I think they don't think about it at all, or it would be talked about. Do people open their eyes when they go on vacation or see a sunset? The idea that beauty is rare and you have to be far away to see it seems to be the idea.. or you have to be watching a movie?
Does 'modern art' focussing on abstractions and ugly conceptual art have a role to play in this, or is it just another manifestation that shows our society has dead eyes when it comes to beauty?
We do, but somehow they only build ugly these days...idiosyncratic designs that have no place. We’ll take them down someday...
@@ComposerJan-PeterdeJager nah
When Jonathan first uttered "cult of the banal" in the US, my mind went immediately to strip malls, which he then provided as an example.
This is absolutely 100% right. I mourn the abject ugliness of America. If a candidate made it a point to try to fix this, they would get my vote!
Too many stupid Americans though. I don’t mean like low IQ, even though there’s plenty of them, but I mean the stupid individualist mindset. People are so obsessed with fiscal success and lack the complex motivations that nearly everyone else in the World has.
There is no policy that fixes this problem. It is a love for money that has destroyed us. The more you have, the more that is taken away from someone who needs it. This country could be fixed over night if the one's who stole most of the wealth would share it with the rest. It really isn't that difficult, but greed is upon us in a very sinister way.
@@terreneofficial
I like your comment, and yet, would not portray what you describe as stealing. It's more like selfish narrow-minded hoarding based on lack of uniting culture and sense of responsibility. Us Europeans truly have preserved that, though it is under attack from precisely that Zeitgeist, which unfortunately despite many good things comes from America.
Therefore then people look to the East. But they won' find anything there.
All we need to find is what we have found in the Holy Land. Now it is just a matter of preserving-against all Evil. Both within ourselves and those with bad [deadly selfish] motivations.
Francis Schaeffer wrote a fascinating book called "How Should We Then Live", where he discusses, in part, the connection between beauty in art as a sign that depicts the rising or falling of a society. Art that is beautiful is an indication of a thriving society, whereas art that is flat, ugly, uncreative, etc. is a sign of a collapsing society.
There's another reason why our architecture is so ugly, it's meant to dehumanize us. Take Soviet brutalism for example. It's functional, but it's depressing just to look at. Our architecture isn't _quite_ that bad, but it's close. Buildings these days are all function over form. If your eyes aren't drawn to a beautiful archway or elaborate tile-work, then the only things left to look at are the products for sale or the computer screen at your cubicle. Even fast food restaurants are becoming this way. In the 90s they were vibrant and colorful, and each chain had it's own aesthetic. McDonalds had a unique look, Arby's had a unique look, Taco Bell had a unique look, etc. Now every single fast food chain out there has the same style of building, they all look like banks.
All the fast food joints are just boxes with lines on them. Everywhere you look, everywhere you drive, mile after mile of boxes with lines on them.
American architecture isn’t that functional because it requires a lot of asphalt for cars to drive and park everywhere. It’s super inefficient costing a lot of money for asphalt, cars and gas. We could have the same building square footage and economy for far less expense on driving and parking.
@@MissingTrails it's a positive bc less Americans need to be consuming fast food tbh
It is no coincidence that society has decayed, since financial sky scrapers, tower above cathedrals and the like.
It shows we worship money above all else.
I am with John Vervaek in that I am not advocating a return to dogmatic religion, but it is fair to say, plenty of stuff could be way better thought out, in how our environments shape us, and how we embed ourselves in the world, and how we optimally fit to our environment for our survival. What kind of community do you have where everyone lives in a tower block?
its not money. its currency. paper sheets other men produce for nothing. you are slaves to them.
The modern view on beauty is summed up by the famous, "form follows function." That mantra is the reason every modern building looks like a bland cube.
There's nothing wrong with that dictum. The issue with the modern world, imo, is how it conceives of "function"
Such a good point about, usually the more libertarian minded conservatives, if you can call them that, where they have a sense of, "no one can tell me what to do", then get upset that other people act the same but don't have the same beliefs as them.
try not handing out your religious labels?
Nice generalization
Yes, libertarians seem to forget that if we get the world they want, just like they can do anything, others can as well, and it will all just fall into chaos and ugliness.
Charleston is legit one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. Love that he brought it up!
We have zoning for autos. We have lot minimums, high restrictions, set backs, parking minimums, road width minimums. By law we are mostly living in asphalt which is never going to look good.
Jonathan is just a gift to America
A curse
He's Canadian.
I feel blessed to have grown up in New Orleans. When people visit, they think it’s “magical” But it’s good old Church planning.
Religion is purid and vile.
We need to get rid of religion and learn the truth
Please stop protecting the lies of religion
OMG - New Orleans sucks. Louissiana sucks.
Come to Quebec ;)
As someone from Britain whenever I go on holiday in Europe or just see American tourists in my own country, they really can come across as childish. This of course isn't always the case but I think it might be because the structure of European towns and cities is so different and the feeling is so different that many probably don't know how to act. You only realise the beauty of your own country when you visit somewhere like New York or LA which are giant concrete cluster fucks. Although many areas of Britain have suffered from the same mentality of American architecture.
beauty is humbling, doubly so when it's beauty our current societies have forgotten how to create
it inspires awe, which I suppose is a childish emotion, seeing these giants so much greater than we are
I wouldn't put NYC and LA in the same category. There's a lot of great classically designed architecture in NYC. It's no Prague, but I wouldn't call it a concrete clusterfuck either.
"Giant concrete clusterfucks" made me literally LOL, but I fear that you are being too kind.
Just walking down on the streets in any European town gives me more fun and more enjoyment than anything I do in the US.
Yet everyone acts like the Texas suburbs are the happiest place on earth
It is strange. Because the nature itself has such a beauty. It is the same in Sweden. My son just came home from his first hiking in the "wild" up in the north. Untouched nature. The pictures he took are like the finest art. And of course it is. Autumn leafs, mirroring lakes, the northern light. God's on art work.
0:24 Beauty, draws you into Truth and Goodness
1:16 Logic and Moral Arguments fall, Beauty bypasses reason into the heart ♥️
2:20 Appearance
3:03 Sense of Amazement
4:00 Proportion
4:32 North America is the Modern Country, very practical less beautiful
6:02 Orientation
8:07 Manifesting The Infinite
8:35 Charleston South Carolina
Things are pretty ugly in NA, but if you come to Montreal, you might find an exception to the rule!
Lots of conservatives love, appreciate, pursue, and foster beauty.
I think it should be something that could bring us together. I think small towns and suburbs alike are turning in to these disgusting shitholes, and we should all oppose it. I don’t get why liberals and conservatives hate each other. Aside from the librarians who are batshit insane, I think conservatives hate the ultra wealthy as much as the liberals do.
This is something i feel passionately about, im happy to hear you speak on this.
Jonathan Pageau needs to start putting out urbanist content.
Albeit a Dutchman, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the '60s and '70s. I loathed the ubiquitous stroads, endless strip malls, malls, and parking lots. I left the US in 1986 for the UK where I lived 31 years. The British sadly replicated the worst of American practices; large volumes of cars and "car parks" fill their secondary cities--making them quite noisy, polluted, and ugly. In 2018, I retired and returned to the fatherland. I live in gorgeous, historic Middelburg which boasts a pedestrian and cycle friendly city center largely off limits to cars and with only a handful of small parking lots. Middelburg provides the fan of cities with wonderful architecture and memorable ambiance. Living here brings me unbridled joy daily. I walk or cycle each day. (I no longer have a car.) Am I in heaven?
I love that Charleston was mentioned! We're called the Holy City because no building downtown can be built taller than St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, and the city has done such a great job of keeping it's beautiful character.
Its beautiful! I love Charleston!
I think the missing talking point is this. The US was spiritually founded by the puritan pilgrims who not only ignored beauty but repudiated any sort of art. Evidence of this is the lack of any artistic tradition until jazz in the 20th century. There are no great no great american artists in history prior to the 20th century aside from a bunch of writers. Everything of great culture in the US is imported( german orchestra music, Italian Opera, Italian Arquitecture , Every type of international food). and the culture they do export (Hollywood) while amazing in its medium is in its meaning fuzzy and cheap. In summary nothing comes from nothing, and fast progress has a price.
SO good!! Eye-opening and mind- opening, as always! I love how JP continues to paint the big picture in layers of luminous colours. It comforts me to hear confirmation that beauty leads to truth, since that seems to be the way in for many of us. Reminds me of Martin Luther: "The poor are as starved for beauty as for bread".
ya in a dream world.
JP makes far too many egotistical assumptions
I think that aesthetic relativism paved the way toward the reign of the cult of ugliness. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", we are told.The mid 20th century artistic movements gave us eyesores such as brutalism, single family home suburbia and car centric design. Perhaps the thinkers of that time thought that our cities and buildings shouldn't have any culture and instead be empty canvases in order to equally welcome all cultures. If so, perhaps the intentions were good but the results are horrific. Nothing but an oceans of asphalt and soul crushing generic malls.
I started noticing years and years ago that the banks are the biggest buildings in most cities. It was and is kind of disturbing.
Cities made with love, or at least lots of dedication and work tend to be more beautiful.
Car Centric Infrastructure
I blame modernity.
Especially modern architecture which I'm studying to become one.
Modernity was the beginning of the end for any collective identity - belonging to something transcendent. Everything is banal and subjective. No cosmology of wholeness and god. Everything is functional and practical, an object to be used. It's all relative with no centre. We have become objects and that needs to change.
I was talking about this with my friend the other day, and I see this pop up in my feed. Crazy.
I was shown this video yesterday by a friend. It's a very new idea for me to consider. It is certainly, it's unhealthy that our central focus has become sports stadiums, shopping malls, amphitheaters, and centers of consumerism. I am a 100% unapologetic capitalist. But in all things we must have balance and moderation. This is the struggle of the human condition. When is enough enough. How do you get others to share that view. Such a strange thing.
I love it when somebody shows me a piece of post-modern, or straight up modern art, and then proceeds to tell me what and how to think about it.
I simply reply:
It's bad, deceptive and ugly.
I found this channel just a couple weeks ago. This guy is so wise and Valuable. Love theese videos.
I don't see this being only a problem in the US, uglyness. Go south of the border and see how ugly things is. But I notice something, planing for the cars is an north american problems.
North America is a young territory. Pioneers left an ordered Europe with it's beauty and struggled to survive and thrive, resulting in different priorities.
It's not that young. It was initially settled over 500 years ago, when most modern "beautiful" European cities were mostly forests and fields.
I see this was recorded before ghouls started losing their mind over 15-min cities calling them backdoor Hunger Games districts introduction. It really is all about human scale. Not truck scale. Want a community? Gotta be able to walk to your sister, know your neighbor and meet your butcher and baker. Otherwise you have people co-habitating the same physical space.
I wish I could live in a 15 min city. I live in pearland, the ugliest car-dependent soulless suburb there is.
I love how the thumbnail is of our most beautiful city
freakin' destroyed
Art and architecture reflects the soul
New York as our most beautiful city? What the heck, man...
@4:20 Watch Not Just Bikes!
Ive waited all my life to find a conservative that recognises this
Boom. Own. Statistic. Debunked!
🤣🤣 that's why they fools
It’s because of cars, something conservatives will never admit.
Im conservative through and through and I admit it. But I love walkable neighborhoods and towns where cars aren’t necessary.
The link for the full version seems incorrect
Thanks. Fixed. th-cam.com/video/N_QQqnpWneE/w-d-xo.html
This is a good companion piece to the work of Bishop Barron. Well done, gentlemen!
Before seeing this vid, I had the last song I heard on the radio in my head; Coming to America by Neil Diamond. It made me feel disgusted because it makes America out to be great, whereas it's not, it's ugly, even to the core
Thank God I'm not the only one who thinks this.
The world will be saved by beauty said Dostoyevsky. He certainly never visited America.
“Ugly has a beauty all its own”
Sprawlin
Lets just say without putting it arrogantly, we Europeans have seen this from the very start the problem with American cities not being beautiful, because you´re not beautifying your cities.
Its all intimidating corporate high tech skyscrapers that´s totally avoid of any character and taste.
There only a few cities and villages in America that do outshine the rest of American cities because people have communities that care for their city and villages and maintain them respectfully.
I´m glad you Americans are talking about it, perhaps a social detox is in order to reflect on the mistakes in city planning and zoning laws and perhaps more emphasis on classical beautiful architecture with a small tint of modernity that suits the place.
Come to Mexico and you will see the beautiful of the Christianity's city.
I'd love to see Jonathan Pageau and Jay Weidner have a discussion. I wish Jay would make more films like Kubrick's Odyssey and have ppl like Jonathan on there.
Art and architecture reflects the soul. Beautiful people create beauty. And the inverse is also true.
Beautiful people created Notre Dame.
America's Church is the skyscraper
Even though it’s possible that the American peoples were purposefully subverted, I can see the validity in this argument. It’s not feasible to impose this upon an impassioned and ‘beautiful’ peoples in some entirely top-down manner. The peoples themselves have to design, legislate, build, and then _not destroy_ the ugly architecture. Knowles even inadvertently alluded to this with his mimicking of a reactionary conservative: “who are you to tell me what I cannot build?” And Pageau nailed it with his retort- ‘then don’t complain down the line when things fall apart’. The common person had to lack a sense of the transcendent significance of beauty to be reduced to their reactionary behaviour.
The dunking on people, debunking, etc. you see on the right shows the same iconoclastic spirit you see on the left. Too many conservatives give little thought to what they're trying to conserve.
Well said
It feels like home here.
Should listen to what Roger Scrutin has to say on the subject of beauty. Inspired.
Apart from the narrow roads, he's describing Utah. Church/temple at the center. A community with a mission....
The convertible needs to make a comeback. Perfect balance between individualism without being in a bubble. I want to cruise slow. I want to idle around in top gear. I want to fumble at uncontrolled intersections and need to make eye contact to get it flowing again and wave fellow motorists and pedestrians through and exchange courteousies. I want a friendly sounding horn and I want it to be easy to find shade to park under.
How come the French, the Germans, and others understand and appreciate this beauty, while we fail to recognize it here?
Here’s my perspective.
America is not just a country; it's a business masquerading as one. It serves as a mere vessel for personal greed, and the only "social" sentiment expressed here is rampant individualism, inevitably leading to unbridled capitalism.
All of this implies a lack of concern for public space; America's infrastructure is deteriorating, and it's not a coincidence. What matters is not what we can contribute to this country or public spaces, but how these spaces can enhance our wealth.
There is no social cohesion in America. Do you know what one of the most comical and sorrowful sentences ever uttered in American English is? "We're all in this together." No, Musk and Bezos are not sharing anything with the rest of us, and the rest of us harbor only one aspiration - the misguided one of becoming Musk and Bezos. For a brief period in the 60s and 70s, it seemed like America was on the verge of transformation into something better, more beautiful. Then Reagan came along, and since then, it's been a downward spiral into ugliness, selfishness, and madness.
compromise creates interest, creates sociability and inventiveness. Creativity flowers under restriction. Oh and get rid of the selfishness bubble that are cars.
Well, magazines like the pre-1990 National Review and Chroncles up until today had articles about art, literature and music for conservative readers.
Great convo - love Jonathan - without the Best Art -the Most love of Nature - the most gripping music and literature - imagination and dare I say the Magic of Gods glorius creation - Protestantism basically ceded the point of living to the secular world - it has to do with the “sola scriptoria” doctrine coupled with industrialization and the disintegration of community - if we have Christ we cannot fear the imagination and the beautiful - truly mankind and Christianity brought all of this on itself - We have to take responsibility for our mistakes and we must embrace the beautiful - those that are lost are on us - Christians themselves are as lost as all those who don’t believe - because in our sterility we lost God - blind leading the blind
Catholic/Orthodox Theocracy now!
Well, that's some sh*t cray.
We definitely don’t need a Catholic one again
Yes 👍 ❤
In North American society planning is pragmatic, &pragmatism is just a socially acceptable form of nihilism. Nihilism is why America is so ugly.
Because we have a dip stick for a president!
We've had a dip stick for president for the past 20 years
Anyone else get the feeling that Jonathan speaks a language that everyone understand but only few people speak?
Yes
The obvious difference that was not discussed is that the USA had Puritans and Anabaptists who influenced churches and architecture whereas Europe had the Roman Catholic influence and state religion. In Latin America and the historical Catholic parts of the US we see such beauty. Nowadays church is inside a boxed shaped warehouse
I saw those electric wires and thought they were beautiful. Maybe because I work in the trades, but I see the stuff that goes into a building, the electrical and plumbing and communications and air exchange and it's like the organs and arteries of a living thing, it makes the building alive to me.
Good engineering and industry does have a beauty to it. Quality parts, fine finishes, clean welds, tight fits. But the architecture itself should be beautiful. Organs and arteries are much more beautiful when they are properly encased in skin, and skin in clothes (usually). If your organs are exposed, not so beautiful.
Maybe because you're uncouth. Are you bragging?
Michael Knowles - your wife inadvertently answered her own question: “Why do they get to have these beautiful *things*?” She thinks in *things*.
It was a way to try to communicate a presence of something (being the beauty described "things" and "this") that's lacking elsewhere.
I think you make a valid point. Beauty is not about “things”, its an expression of unity. It extends into every aspect of life. Its the proper balance between everything, and when we see it visually we call it beauty. Its not merely about creating things to look at, or consume, its actually a function of a unified body.
That's a lot of assuming about how someone else thinks. "Things" is just as likely a short-cut filler word used when trying to express your frustration that the feeling you have of being filled with beauty, the whole physical and emotional hybrid sensation that washes over you while walking through a beautiful old European city, is something you don't get to have at home. Many people have had the same experience. It's quite a leap to just decide "oh, she used the word thing, she's just a shallow materialist."
@@sunrhyze its quite a leap to put your own words in quotations and attribute them to me, you knucklehead.
The point is that we - *we* moderns *all* think of the world as being composed of separate *things*. What was once a heuristic is now taken as a given.
This way of thinking (really this way of *not* embodied *being*) is at the root of our inability to create beautiful buildings.
I assumed this would be all about how cities are bad but I happy to be wrong. Our suburbs are just as ugly and even less liveable. Despite my dislike of central planning a large thing like a town or city needs it to be truly functional.
Yeah we should not let corporations build cities. They build them to require maximum driving
@@SlashinatorZ that's the government's fault, maybe with a little collusion with corporations but in the end I'm putting most of the blame on bad government regulations.
@@undercomposition I put it all on greedy corporations.
I would argue Town Planning is the most American concept, the country is literally built around it. When a group of people settle a new place be it Jamestown, Plymouth, Charleston, Salt Lake City, San Francisco one of the first things the settlers have to do is determine parcels, streets, the relationship between buildings, where the church and public space goes, water access, waste. If we ever settled the moon, we would be asking almost the same questions.
The US used to have lots of nice inner cities, but a lot of them were bulldozed for the car in the 50s and 60s. Highways and parking lots suddenly became the future so the old buildings had to go apparently.
Its funny and a little contradictery but in Holland where I live everything is a bit smal, almost children sized. The ceters of towns are difficult yo reach by car so people do most things on the bike or they walk. Than you meet people, you look them in the eyes and say hallo. Keeping the cars out is in this time a scarry thing because of gouvernement over regulations. But I LOVE the freedom the bike gives me! I did everything on the bike even moving a fridge!!
Are there other examples of so-called traditional towns he talks about at 5:34 in the United States? There's a lot of human-scaled communities in the North East but they tend to be irreligious
It seems a lot of this has to do with the classic liberal political theory from Hobbes Locke and Mill. I’m just learning this now but Patrick Deneen and DC Schindler have great books on this.
I wonder what they think of Dubai?
Painting with a wide brush, Mr. Knowles. Got that Abbie Hoffman vibe 🙄
I wasn't sure I understood the name of the neighborhood in Charleston that he refers to at around the 8:50 mark. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks so much!
I am just here to say, I will die someday but took the time to say... Michael Knowles about why America is ugly. Thats defintily the lowest bar possible. He is basically the face for why. Literally speaking but as a brand. Daily Wire. Laughable
Or not making everything car centric.
come to brazil
north america's beauty resides in its wilderness and not its cities. this was known well over 100 years ago when grant and macdonald inaugurated the national parks in the us and canada respectively.
I don't buy that. The US has some really beautiful and unique cities but some of them are in state of decay and have been for years. There's a lot of potential.
The Texas wilderness is hideous. Lots of overgrown weeds, tallowwood trees, shrubbery too thick for animals to live in, etc.
It's no accident that Osama bin Laden perversely, and not without evil, aimed at the hideous World Trade Center monstrosities. I remember having the same dark thought when I first visited the city of Phoenix. Ugly beyond belief yet growing like mad. Sorry. I have strong emotions surrounding this topic.
I completely gave up on NYC, a city I used to like, when the tallest building was lit up the color of blood to celebrate the state's new legislation, legislation which permitted the killing of older _censored for youtube_
a city's tallest building points towards its highest ideal. "World trade" kinda sucks but it's tolerable. Sacrificing _censored for youtube_ is a different story.
The Tower of Babel getting it's due end.
I like your passion, but I don’t think skyscrapers are the main issue. I don’t really know what to think of them, but I think the strip malls, supermarkets, movie theaters, and fast food places are what need to be bombed. Of course without people in them. Skyscrapers are surely intimidating and lack the surreal beauty of Europes larger buildings, but despite the intimidating nature of skyscrapers, they are impressive and magnificent structures. Some of the newer ones suck, but the Sears Tower, Empire State, One World Trade are all works of art in my opinion. Besides nothing was there before hand, it’s not like we destroyed churches. In fact many of Chicago and New York have very old large religious buildings still. And one company does not own the entire building, most of them are used by several businesses and organizations. They’re essentially a public service as many of them anyone can visit.
I think it started a bit before the 1950s when we started making skyscrapers. Also America is only 200 years old,we don't have the same monuments and buildings in places like Britain,Rome,Germany,etc. Its the same way for Russians and korea too i think
Have you been to Korea and Russia?
@@ordinary1069 no why
And you think those monuments are yet to come?
@@landonbarretto4933 no
The good reset!
America is beautiful ❤️
We also don’t have beautiful buildings because of labor costs/material costs
Because Americans tried to secure their unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by reigning in the powers of the governments, but forgot to do the same with regards to the power of the corporations.. and even worse, they adopted an eleventh commandment; "Thou shall endorse raw capitalism".
Now the Mamon (i.e. the Big Money) has taken center stage in the desolate soulless cities in North America.
Basically, Capitalism.
Is it me or does Jonathan look bigger and taller than he usually does? 🤔 🧐
Jonathan Chadeau
Ben Shapiro makes everyone look tall in comparison, even when he's off set
but if this were true, wouldn't Europe be the wealthiest (spiritually) continent? I don't see it, except maybe in monasteries.
I think the beauty in nature -- which is America's true wealth -- is what makes the US so powerful.
they were spiritually wealthy when they built all that beautiful stuff
@@sennewam You need a sedative.
I’m not giving up my car. We have way worse problems in the US than car culture. Fix our mental health crisis first, then we’ll talk about car culture
They go hand in hand. We should bring back asylums of some kind, Daniel Larson is a mascot for our failing mental health system.
Getting rid of car culture & building 15 minute cities would be a big step towards fixing mental health
Is Canada in America? or is Johnathan P. just a bit confused?
He said North America. Canada is in North America.
@@ashraine6684 America is not a country.
Its a State
@@je-freenorman7787 lol oh alright
@@ashraine6684 Is that alright with you? lol
Its a fact, Jack
if you disagree, you are confused
@@ashraine6684 Canada and USA are also both, Roman Corporations, under the British Crown and in the Holy Roman Empire .
Read it and weap.
Deny it all you want
Facts are Facts
This is all true up to a point, but I think he's missing something as well. Or maybe he just didn't want to talk about it because it could offend people. But the reality is that America was ugly even before the car, though I agree the invention of the car has not helped. But we've been ugly since the start and will remain ugly. Why? Because America was founded upon Protestant theology. Protestantism is very iconoclastic. Yes, I know that not every single denomination is iconoclastic, but even the denominations that are not iconoclastic still do not take beauty as seriously as the Orthodox or Catholics. When you have a whole society full of Protestants building cities from the ground up, you're going to get ugly stripped down buildings that create ugly stripped down cities.
Catholics in the Americas haven't had the wealth that America has had. Yet with less resources than American Protestants, they've still built more beautiful cities. Compare a town like San Miguel de Allende or even a poor city like Oaxaca Mexico to a wealthy city like NYC. NYC has way more wealth but the center is banal and ugly, yet Oaxaca's center is much prettier.
Agree mostly on beauty....but Christ in the Bible is said to be , paraphrasing, plain in sight , not really probably what most would find handsome, pretty or very attractive...
Even though the car is a big factor in the loss of this sense of community, it doesn't seem possible to return to that past unity (even if cars disappeared) unless we have a common project and common values (religion)
She said, "I want to feel beautiful", flushed the toilet, and laid down with the phone...the precious neighbors had no idea.
Wait, I think the highway interchanges are beautiful -- graceful, geometric, interweaving. And many glass towers are very beautiful, and cities sculpt their skylines to be genuinely beautiful.
Okeyy... but You don't live in an aeroplane, You live on the ground...
About 1:20 Knowles: I guess I can make some logical reasoned argument, but that might elude some people or turn them off, or maybe they're just not interested...
Pageau handles it in his elegant way, but right here i would turn the question back on Knowles
Have you asked yourself why people can't hear you? What have you done to build trust with them in the past? Do your words indicate that you understand them and their concerns? Has your advice in the past been if benefit to them? Have you listened to their questions or objections in the past?
No. Conservatives shovel horse manure about values and culture while living as parasites serving bigger parasites.
Nothing good about this world haha. If truth and goodness made this I'll take the 3rd option thanks.