I was sitting on a bench in Toronto the other day just looking around. I was astounded at the sheer ugliness of modern life, and I’m not talking about the homeless addicts and filth everywhere, although they are the outward manifestation of the obvious inward decay. This “piece of art” in front of me told a story about every Western nation: that ugliness has overtaken every facet of life and beauty has become undesirable. We are told that this is art and it should be appreciated for what it is, whatever it is. In a world where objective standards have been decried as bigoted, everything becomes good and beautiful by definition.
The online memes highlight the problem. Young leftists post about their “euro summer” or how they long for yet another “European vacation” filled with museums, cobblestone street cafes, fashion, and that old world charm. But, they find themselves in a terrible predicament. They are helplessly enamoured with the beauty of what the old world built, yet despise the beliefs that inspired the men of centuries past, to build it. The irony is fascinating to consider: modern progressives love their “Euro vacays;” to gaze in wonder at what medieval Christians built, yet despise those same transcendental Christian beliefs that inspired them to build with such care.
Which brings me back to the ugly statue in front of me, and the cookie cutter, cheap glass and steel buildings I was surrounded by. We build nothing lasting anymore; nothing for future generations to look at and be inspired by. Modern people are not interested in understanding anything outside their pointless existence of consumption and hedonism. They yearn for the beautiful, yet have no desire for what that entails.
Foundationally, you can’t have a conversation about why everything is ugly without talking about the removal of God from society. Atheism and modern paganism are at the crux of the war on beauty and the apathy towards God; the source of all beauty. This is reflected poignantly in our music, art, architecture, and people. Why do beautiful things move us the way they do? A landscape, a cathedral, a painting, a song, or the face of another? It’s because beauty is a transcendental attribute of humanity; a sense of something that we’ve been imbued with, from outside us and above us.
Most days I walk right by this image below. We have settled for elementary school drawings on concrete as architectural lipstick to hide what’s underneath. Graffiti is a symbol of decay. It is not art, it is the desecration of art, and we do nothing to stop those who vandalize our cities. We have accepted and grown used to the subversion of beauty to the point where we now crave the ugly and celebrate it.
The debasement of beauty crushes the human spirit and makes us miserable. This is the necessary outcome for those who have rejected the source of all beauty. A nation that rejects God gets what it deserves. Maybe the defilement of the beautiful has been the goal all along.
Over the past week, millions of documents from the infamous “Epstein Files” were made public. Much of what they revealed confirmed allegations long dismissed as the ravings of so-called conspiracy theorists. For many doubters, the veil was lifted to reveal the depth of depravity many of the world’s leaders and popular celebrities wallowed in. From kidnapping girls, to breeding for black market baby sales, to forced abortions for organ harvesting, to even darker rituals of satanic sacrifices and cannibalism, those that thought they were protected and untouchable participated in acts that would make the ancient pagans blush. When it comes to the heart of man, there is nothing new under the sun. This is not isolated wickedness, nor the private sickness of a few individuals—it is the inevitable outworking of a society that has opend the door to, embraced, and celebrated, all manner of evil.