Dakota Beacon

About a year ago, Paul Joseph Watson presented a video decrying the absolute ugliness of post-World War II architecture, with reference to its chief promoters, disciples of Hitler’s cultural design.  Indeed, long ago I read and saw drawings of Hitler’s concepts for architecture intended to dwarf people and increase the illusion that they are meaningless beings.

His building concepts were brutish, harsh in line, Art Deco without the art, militaristic, imposing, intentionally graceless and HUGE.  No one, in short, would want to be anywhere near them. They had a threatening aspect. Not human friendly.

Our cities today resemble the visions of Hitler.  Stalin was the same. Look at the line of human ants exiting the power plant in the opening scene of David Lean’s film, Doctor Zhivago.  There is a painfully obvious reason for this.  Unknown to many, one of Stalin’s plans was to demolish St  Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. Doubtless, had he lived to realize his intention, there would now be another monolithic block supplanting it on which to hang massive banners displaying  gigantic portraits of the current leaders, whether formally “communist” or just communist in spirit, like the present leader.

But why wring our hands over Moscow?  We have this in our hometowns right here in North Dakota and Minnesota (and the rest of America as well).  Back in the 1960;s Grand Forks residents were understandably distressed at the off-hand, foolish and cynical decision to demolish the 1911 Carnegie Library - not only a lovely building, but a piece of social history.  When the library stood gracefully on a downtown block, in its own mini park of large shade trees and benches, it was a beautiful picture in summer, with its original imposing fireplace mantel, a comfort to see on a bleak winter’s day, it was an oasis.  I spent many Saturday afternoons there while my mother shopped downtown. Its large windows had somewhat quaint draperies, all evoking the early Twentieth Century of which it had been a prominent part. When the library was destroyed deliberately by this baleful commission, a few cheered at the thought of something “new”.  Today, the ugly monolith which replaced it in what is now jokingly referred to as “midtown” Grand Forks (the south end) is no longer cheered.  Committees are formed periodically, surveys are conducted on a quasi-serious basis to try to find a “solution” for the now inadequate hulk.

Our larger cities have been transformed from bustling centers full of people into people-defying impassable expanses - freeways, etc.  Even Winnipeg’s famed corner of Portage and Main, considered the “windiest” corner in the continent, became off-limits to those who would brave the traffic and weather to actually cross the street there, forced underground into walkways instead.  Where we don’t have underground tunnels to crawl through we have unsightly overhead cages of tunnels. Many years ago I worked as an agent at a major hotel reservations center in Memphis.  The first night I wanted to get out of the building for some air (smoking was still a feature of everyday office atmosphere), I found an immense prairie, fronting on a freeway blocked off with chain-link fencing.  I felt like a prisoner.  In fact it was a lot like the atmosphere of the iconic TV series, The Prisoner, a maze of fake hotel lobbies and restaurant settings and a holiday-evoking pool with umbrella tables and the zodiac painted on its floor inside and an intimidating and threatening field - a no-man’s land outside of the permitted area.  “Escape” was literally impossible without getting in your car and driving out of the gate onto the freeway access. It was a horrible feeling, regardless of the job I did inside the compound or the seemingly luxurious surroundings.

The 1997 flood served to help the planners come closer to their goal of obliterating our past here (“never let a crisis go to waste”)  - that was not just a cause of horrendous loss to the people but was greeted with enthusiasm by those who would “reshape” Grand Forks in their image.  There were many losses. Some from mysterious fire downtown, others such as historic Belmont School, left perfectly viable and easily repairable according to experts at the time (I spoke with people at the State Historical Society), razed to make way for a phony facsimile, “updated” to retain none of the history, style or grace of the original.  Many homes were razed as well, which had already been repaired, both in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.

In the video Morrissey, of The Smiths, commented that his neighborhood in Manchester had similarly been redesigned by these planners.  He described the pleasant home it had been, with friends and family living in harmony there - literally, the ideal healthy social construct - and that it was as though his entire childhood had been wiped away.  He said there is “nothing’ there now. Well, there might be another monolithic block of a building in the background, but “nothing’ describes it accurately. It is a void. One cannot escape the reality that this is intentional.  Watson alludes to this in his presentation. It is in the interest of the centralized State to destroy those social institutions which have been surviving and thriving without its control. It was intended to break up this bulwark against state power - the friendly, functional neighborhood that Morrissey described.  Think about it. It represented a resistance to an all-powerful state. If you are objective, you can look at what was fifty years or more ago in Britain, as in America, and compare it with what we have now. It is impossible to see it as improvement.

One of the very few things salvaged from destruction in downtown Grand Forks were some small pocket parks.  One, in particular, Arbor Park, was a magnet for much community involvement - planting of annual flower gardens donated by one business, sculpture by local artists as well as more modest contributions of art by children and others, benches, tables and a lovely centerpiece - a gazebo of bronze whose construction of trees and branches was so lifelike as to be taken for the real thing.  In the evening, vintage-style street lamps illuminated it. Trees filled it out for shade and home for birds and the occasional squirrel. It was a beautiful tiny jewel of nature set amid the business, government and commercial buildings and parking ramps. Those who lived or worked downtown used it as a pleasant little place to sit and read or have a snack or coffee during a lunch break.  I thought it would have been interesting to use it as a spot for a small Celtic festival for a weekend. Before that could happen the developers descended and, with the collusion of city hall, acquired this public land for a song, managed to secure a tax-free status for some 10 years (watch for this to be extended), eliminating not only property tax but income tax for the promoters for that period.  Now in the place of the venerable trees shading the stone walkways and benches we have a crane and the ugly six-story building affronting us.

How long will it be before the combination of planners and SJWs conspire to rid us of the old GAR statue south of downtown?  It might easily go the way of the statues of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson, et al. I wonder how long it will be before someone decides to do away with W.C. Handy’s statue in Memphis.  After all, he was probably too dedicated to his music to pay sufficient attention to politics. Like our historic buildings, our statues and other sculptures and such things as cannon, vintage aircraft, tanks, etc., all part of our history, are disappearing.  My brother remarked once that statues are for kids. Kids see a statue and ask, “Who was that guy?” Then we tell them about their country’s past. Then they learn. Instead we have nothing to look at but ugly buildings which are replaced with more ugly buildings as soon as they cycle around to planners’ attention again.  

The hideous building which Watson described as an alien spaceship might more accurately be described as some horrible, disease-carrying, possibly venomous giant insect which has just crawled out of a hole, or something you saw in a nightmare on your wall.  It was supposed to affect us that way. How else can you explain it?

Our cities are faced with increasing real challenges as we lurch into this century - uncontrolled mass migration, terrorism, gang activies, drugs, economic slump (don’t be fooled by the Department of Labor - it is now apparent that the so-called “Millenials” are broke: https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-kill-industries-because-poor-fed-report-2018-11https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-kill-industries-because-poor-fed-report-2018-11) the last thing we should be doing is destroying the evidence of a successful past.  Or even an unsuccessful or tragic past - we need to know and learn from our history.

We need to halt the destruction of our visible past before it is all lost forever.  It is difficult to protect statues now that we are deep into a self-induced state of lawlessness where mobs are free to destroy things belonging to the public and to our history, but at least we can stop our public “servants” from planning us into dust.   

Paul Joseph Watson:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GapUEKYLE1o&fbclid=IwAR34fL2G80CzYgUXByrntWhdFXvpDlEo1oDBNTIhURg9X58t7cqMSx3HJzc