Sometimes I look out my window at Lake Zug and seriously wonder: when did we decide that ugliness is a virtue? There I stand, gazing at this breathtaking natural backdrop – and what do I see around it? Concrete blocks that look like a colorblind architect had a bad day. Buildings as charming as a parking garage and about as inspiring. Honestly, sometimes I think architects deserve to be… well, let’s say sent into early retirement. It’s as if we’ve collectively decided that beauty is a luxury we can no longer afford. Instead, we get served “efficiency” and “cost optimization” – as if these were concepts that make our hearts beat faster.
When Functionality Becomes Religion
Just look around! Our cars from the past – those were personalities on four wheels! A VW Beetle had charm, a Jaguar E-Type was pure poetry in metal. Today? Capsules roll down our streets, as indistinguishable as smartphones in black cases. But it’s not just architecture or design. It’s… everything. Our language becomes more brutal daily, shortened to bite-sized pieces for people with the attention span of goldfish. Where have the beautiful, flowing sentences gone? The melody of words? Replaced by hashtags and slogans. Fashion? Oh, don’t get me started on fashion. People walk around as if they dressed in the dark at a thrift store. Not because vintage is beautiful – but because everyone should look the same. As if individuality were a contagious disease.
Nature as Victim of Utility
And then nature! We concrete over meadows as if there were a Guinness World Record for fastest landscape destruction. Every square meter must be “productive,” must be “used.” As if trees were lazy when they simply stand there and are beautiful. I remember starry skies from my childhood – today? Light pollution turns the night into orange fog. We’ve traded stars for LED streetlights. A bad deal, if you ask me.
Art Without Soul
In art, it’s the worst. Canvases hang in galleries that look like someone vomited paint on them – and everyone nods reverently, murmuring something about “conceptual depth.” Music? Algorithms produce interchangeable beats, as characterless as the architecture. Real beauty – the kind that makes your heart contract with awe – has become rare. Replaced by what “goes viral,” what “works,” what brings “measurable results.”
The Crack in the Whole
But you know what’s behind it? It’s not just bad taste or cost-cutting measures. It’s the perversion of an entire worldview. Beauty emerges when humans have a harmonious relationship with their environment. When they have time to look, to dream, to create. But in a world where everything is optimized, accelerated, and rationalized, there’s no room left for the unnecessary – and beauty is wonderfully unnecessary. It serves no “purpose,” brings no “ROI,” isn’t “scalable.” It simply exists – and apparently that’s no longer enough.
Hope in Resistance
Still, I don’t give up. Because beauty is like weeds – it finds its way. In a handwritten letter that blooms among emails. In a small café that refuses to look like a chain. In people who still notice when a sunset is special. And maybe – just maybe – we’ll remember again that a world without beauty is a world where humans wither. That our souls need color, forms, harmony. Until then, I keep looking. And I say loudly what I see: that we don’t have to accept ugliness. That beauty isn’t elitist, but a basic need.
It’s all a matter of perspective – and I choose the perspective of hope.
What do you think? Where do you feel the loss of beauty most? Share your thoughts – maybe we’ll look a little closer together.
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