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I think it’s a false dilemma only because a culture that doesn’t see itself as worth making beautiful is one that won’t exit for long.
Beauty in the built environment is a symbolic way of saying that this culture and this place is worth making beautiful. I think you can see this with religion the most clearly. In the early days of religion, you had big, bold beautiful cathedrals, chalices and bowls made of precious metals and jewels, ornate vestments, and so on. And it was a reflection of the way (at the time Catholic) Christianity saw itself and the world. God was worthy of the absolute best. In modern times, Christian churches are often placed in strip malls or reclaimed businesses, built to be functional but not much else. And I think it’s leading to at least some of the decline in religious interest. God has been reduced to something unworthy, something that only deserves the cheapest of materials, the most banal of music and to be squeezed in next to the Orange Julius and Xist Fitness and a cheap cafeteria.
The same can be seen in our art in general. We simply no longer take ourselves seriously. We don’t see our culture in a way that makes it worth taking seriously. I’m personally a fan of the older Star Trek, and to me the entire thing has devolved into the same self-parody that plagues much of movie and TV making. No gravitas, no sense that anything is at stake, no big ideas. Fuck putting in effort, or making it seem like anything matters. Instead, make it a giant spectacle. Turn Spock into a cursing gen Z emo. Turn it into a musical. Write stories that reference cartoons. Write stories that make no sense on any level. And it’s impossible for anyone to watch that because why would you take something seriously that doesn’t take itself seriously.
Why would someone feel inspired to to something wonderful in a culture that sees itself as unserious and unworthy and banal?
Have you considered that they just find different things worth taking seriously? The value of buildings as a way of indicating a place's worth is intuitive, perhaps, but not the only way.
I think so, obviously people will differ on which parts of the built environment or what art is worth making beautiful. But I thing the general trend in the west that people around these parts are hitting on is that this is a pretty generalized trend, we don’t think anything in our culture or civilization is worth the effort of beautification or even just taking seriously. I tend to agree with the Chinese criticism of western culture— that we are simply an unserious people. Nothing has worth or use or deserves to be taken seriously.
And thus to me is a huge problem because an unserious people cannot and will not do anything of note. Why would they, the environment screams at them that they live in a throw away society where everything is built cheaply as possible and made to break or be thrown away? Why contribute to culture when it’s cheap tawdry memes and spectacle and self parody all the way down? When the prize winning art looks like the artist puked paint on the canvas, and the best music is forgotten quickly, and so on, it says everything worth saying about us. A person who doesn’t believe they deserve good things would be considered possibly depressed, or at least to have issues with their self worth. I would submit that the general ugliness of our environment, our shitty art and so on say the same about us. We no longer believe that we deserve such nice things.
As a cohesive unit? That's fundamentally impossible. Do you think the Chinese youth take their leaders as seriously as those leaders take themselves? The next generation is always going to make jokes and generally trivialize what came before, that's their job.
There exist many people who can and do serious work, you're just not seeing it.
Do you like fiction? Ever want to read an entirely serious work about Rey and Kylo from the new Star Wars trilogy going from enemies to lovers? Go to AO3, you'll find your serious fiction. Do you like music? I'm sure there's some heartfelt song out put out by a black rapper about his struggles growing up on SoundCloud.
Yes, these things get memed. Yes, people do eventually grow tired of them. But just as many people hold these things near and dear to their hearts. They just don't get up in arms when someone makes a joke about it. Memes and self-parody don't stop serious things from existing, often within the same minds as well. The folks on the noncredibledefense subreddit made waifu art of Perun (a military analysis channel), but they'd be the first to tell you they take his words seriously.
"Where are my statues and buildings?" you ask. But those are your standards for what indicates a culture's self-esteem. The people you think are doing nothing are doing what they think is serious. Statues and buildings have a permanency and impact that are matched movies and TV shows. Which is more beautiful and serious, the original Star Wars trilogy or the Golden Gate Bridge? While I don't have the answer to that, the former was referenced in literal Chinese propaganda directed at their youth.
I’m thinking more of the cultural creatives and tastemakers and educational establishment. The people who design things — the architects and artists and writers obviously would bare the responsibility of having created ugly, cheap, art. The filmmakers are doing the same things with movies. They don’t care for the craft of filmmaking, there’s no thought to telling a coherent interesting story, it’s just spectacle and effects. And most of it is yet another franchise film that goes nowhere, but with plenty of room for the next 3-4 movies. Nobody’s going to look back on this generation’s films the way they look on the originals and Classic films of earlier eras.
But those largely are not art movies in the first place! They're not trying to be either! The MCU might be defended by fans as serious art, but it's a kid's spectacle to its core. You want serious movies that are trying to be art? Try movies like VVitch, Midsommar, or Tar.
I can hardly think of a more anti-elite attitude to movies if the ones that win box offices and several awards each year are flashy spectacles that the public at large seems fine eating up.
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One would assume there is a correlation between cathedrals and church growth while strip mall churches meet with failure, when the correlation is very much negative. The denominations that hold and maintain the tall steeple churches tend to be the ones living off of trust funds rather than congregants while the "is the new building a cannabis farm or a church?" Denominations are the ones in a consistent growth cycle (before imploding due to governance issues so mine picks up the pieces.)
If you want to you can compare the American methodists with the non-denominational Baptists and see that story play out. I'm certain that the lack of beauty does have some play in it, but it is far below a lot of other driving forces.
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