There is a trend among the modern age in which beauty is being shed for the bland. You see it everywhere: in our cities, our artwork, and our politics.

It just seems like there is no want to take time on beautiful works of art anymore. Everything is starting to have this bland, corporate aesthetic. Eventually, everything will look the same. You know, like the wet floor sign man.

I am of the belief that we must bring beauty and aesthetic back into the political field. If you want to make an effective political movement, it has to look good. People have to like what they see.

Bringing Aesthetic Back to Politics

We must bring back the old political tradition of creating brilliant works of art in order to grab the people’s eye. Visuals must be stunningly brilliant, as far as the eye can see.

The art of political posters being plastered on every wall must also be brought back. Any publicity is good publicity, and what better way to get publicity than putting advertisement where people can see it?

Political uniforms must make a comeback. There is no reason to join a movement if you are not going to dress nice and feel as if you are a part of something much larger.

This also means that organized demonstrations need to be undertaken. These can be in the forms of parades, marches, rallies, etc. Let the people have fun being apart of the organization.

Symbolism is important. A catchy logo is a must have for any serious political movement. In America, we have the Donkey and Elephant. In my view, these are rather dull.

A true symbol must project strength, to the point that everyone knows which organization it belongs to. That way, a wall of text is not needed. Show, do not tell, the aims of your organization.

Put people on street corners handing out pamphlets, politely. Bring out the soapboxes and megaphones so people everywhere can hear your message. The public square is not dead.

While the above are all methods that have worked well in the past, we must also cover the present. The internet must be utilized effectively for any political organization to have success.

Now, you may ask, Oceanus, why is it that you feel all this is needed?

The answer is simple: it would get more people engaged in the political process. I guarantee you that people who are apolitical right now would become more involved if you gave them something to be involved in.

Right now, in America at least, politics is a niche hobby. The two national parties are there, but not interesting enough to the apolitical masses to engage with.

Unless you are some sort of diehard Republican or Democrat, there is no motivation to work with either party. The closest thing in recent years that has come close but not far enough to what I have outlined is the Trump movement.

Yet even then, the Trump movement attaches itself to the Republican Party, which hampers the movement’s ability to keep itself interesting and vibrant.

The only way that the Trump movement can counteract this is to either create an entirely new party altogether, or radically reshape the Republicans from an establishment party to a revolutionary organization.

Remember, it isn’t enough for a political organization to simply commit to actions such as the above, they also need to look good. Artists must be employed to actually make good political art.

This art must be pleasing to the eye, as such styles like cubism or futurism should not be utilized. Avant-garde and modernism should also be discouraged as they have proven to be a jumbled mess.

Beautiful art must be utilized in every piece of media that the organization distributes.

I call this plan Operation Shock and Awe the Hearts and Minds of the Masses.

Beauty in Architecture

We must end the practice of making all buildings look the exact same. Look at most major cities today, and you see the same brutalist styles popping up everywhere.

Look, I do not mind brutalism when it is used sparingly. I think some of the old Soviet buildings that used brutalism are neat. That being said, it should not be the standard for urban development.

The main reason I believe this is because it just has this stark contrast with the surrounding nature. If you were to put a brutalist structure in the middle of a green field, it will look too uncanny. Like Slenderman is about to appear or something.

I also do not mind skyscrapers. I like skyscrapers, I believe that they are the best form of building up that we can achieve at the moment, and I would like to see more of them. If we are going to build, I would rather we build up and not out.

All this being said, my main preference for architecture would be to have most buildings erected in the gothic or neoclassical style. The United States is considered to be the successor to the Roman Empire, and as such, we should have our architecture reflect that.

Imagine buildings that look like huge gothic cathedrals that are actually hotels, apartments, banks and offices. If we got really creative, we could probably build industrial complexes in that style as well.

I would especially like to see Washington DC erect more neoclassical buildings that aren’t just for monumental purposes.

One more style on my list: art deco. I live in Florida, we have this city called Miami, and the art deco style was and still sort of is important there. However, this style isn’t unique to Florida, it used to be the standard for cities like New York and Chicago in the 20s.

You could say that art deco is a uniquely American form of architecture that we really ought to bring back. As an American, I would welcome such an initiative with open arms.

Of course, all of these would have to comply with updated safety standards. I call this Operation: Revitalization.

Beauty in Art

Even art itself has been subjected to ugliness. Art used to be this expression of human brilliance. The idea that a person could convey a unique and visually appealing image to other people.

Now, it seems to have also caught the scourge of blandness. You see things like Banana Taped To Wall sell for thousands of dollars because some rich guy thought it was the pinnacle of human ability.

The reason for this is because there has been this odd consensus that anything can be art if you really think about it hard enough. I disagree with that. I believe that line of thinking has contributed to a lowered standard despite the initial intention being rooted in intellectual thinking.

Now, I’m not saying that we need a Van Gogh on every wet floor sign. That is impractical and probably unobtainable. However, the wet floor sign man should not be upheld as a high standard.

I also do not mean art as in only paintings or displays, I include mediums such as animation in this rant. I do not believe that animation in the West today has aged well in comparison to our Eastern brothers.

I believe that the last good animation that has come out of the West in the past two decades was Avatar: The Last Airbender (the 2005 series, not the live actions). Even then, that series was animated by a Korean studio.

This is why I have ended up just solely consuming Japanese anime for the past decade. I find most anime (reminder, anime is a medium with varying art styles) to have beautiful art and aesthetic.

If you like cuteness, violence, beauty, horror, cool, or sometimes all of that in one, anime is the medium for you. For some reason, the West hasn’t really been able to replicate this.

Yes, Oceanus is an Otaku, if that wasn’t obvious in my previous writings.

Beauty in Music

My friend brought up a good point to me the other day. She said that a lot of music these days sounds the same. Like there is no uniqueness anymore. Just people throwing notes at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Also brought up was this weird infatuation that certain musicians have with Satanism. Satanism by definition cannot be artistic. The entire point of Satanism is to destroy God’s creation.

I’m not some sort of devout religious zealot, but this is just fact. You cannot be a Satanist and claim to love art and beauty when your entire ideology is to destroy it.

It is no wonder why these musicians who use Satanic themes usually end up producing trash music. Nonetheless, people listen to it anyhow, so there must be some sort of appeal, though I fail to see it.

True music must be pleasant to listen to. I used to play the violin, nobody would want to hear me play the back end of the instrument behind the bridge that produces a screeching sound if you run your bow over it.

I am shuddering just remembering the sound that it makes. The same logic applies to bad music.

Conclusion

My main point with this piece was really just to rant about the state of beauty and aesthetic. Keep in mind, I am a writer, not an artist, but as the saying goes, you don’t have to be a cook to know when your food is burnt.

I follow many artists because I feel like they have done a good job of keeping close to my vision. I think that despite my dooming, there are many people out there who also understand the importance of what I have written above.

Hopefully in the future we can form a grand alliance to bring back beauty and aesthetic to the West, and America specifically. You can call this Artistic Nationalism, at least until I think of a better term for it.