I am not a fan of Alex Jones and InfoWars is a joke, so it is hard for me to admit that I watched two videos by Paul Joseph Watson from my YouTube recommended videos that I actually liked.
The first was about why modern art sucks, and the second is about why modern architecture sucks.
These videos make very good and well researched points similar to the content of a Vice article I’ve posted before: I’m Sick Of Pretending: I Don’t “Get” Art.
There is real evidence that modern or post-modern architecture actually destroys cities. They take away from our ability to define a place as something unique. There are no less than two TED talks about the terribleness of modern architecturea and why people hate it.
It comes down to two issues. First: the philosophy of post-modernism rejected the idea of absolute truths, and in doing so rejected the idea that beauty was something objective. The avant garde of post-modern architecture rushed to make buildings as ugly as possible to show off their post-modernist cred. It was a style called brutalism.
The other comes down to the idea summed up in the quote from the “father of modern architecture” Louis Sullivan: “form follows function.”
I’m a gun guy.
I am a 1911 guy.
I love the works of John Moses Browning (peace be upon him).
I have some other guns that I truly love, my S&W Model 41 (from 1974), my Model 52, my Colt Woodsman target, even my Beretta 92. Each is unique in their own way.
I got to handle the new Beretta APX the other day.
Here is what I have to say. Fuck Gaston Glock. He is the Louis Sullivan of guns.
That brutalist aesthetic has infected the gun world. How else did a 500 year old company go from something so iconic in it’s silhouette like this:
To this:
Because Berreta got infected with post modernist Glockism.
Everybody has.
Glock
A Springfield Armory Glock or a Spock
A Sig Glock or a Slock
A Smith and Wesson Glcok or a Smock.
A Ruger Glcok or a Ruock
A Remington Glock or a Rock.
I have been brutalized by post modernist Glockism.
I don’t care that it only holds eight rounds. Manual safeties do not scare me. I find there to be few more beautiful pistols than the 1911A1 and the P35 High Power.
How can the plastic block compare to the elegance of this:
Art in steel and wood, with real checkering instead of random stippling.
I reject post-modern Glockism. Sure they function, but life is more than just about function. It is about beauty and style and being unique.
It is making an impression on the world and not just being a simulacrum of something else.
I call for a return to elegance in the gun world before gun counters become like modern cities, where everything new is devoid of soul in a bleak landscape of black and FDE plastic.
I have to disagree somewhat. For every iconic handsome metal frame gun, there’s a pile of fugly service pistols from all over the place. I’ve watched too much Forgotten Weapons. I think the M&P looks better than most of the classic S&W automatics. Also consider that the accessory rail looks ugly on everything. Then look at the sig 2022 which looks pretty much like a normal metal frame Sig.
At least there was diversity in the designs. Not all were winners, but there was variety. Now it is homogeneity. That’s a shame.
Like most cars, outside of the ‘iconic designs’, they all pretty much look the same to me.
It seems we went from Pininfarina to Bauhaus. They all look like ugly boxes.
When did horrible modern art become a thing? Duchamp’s “Fountain”? One thing’s for sure, I do appreciate modern art’s ability to separate boatloads of cash from pompous idiots.
I feel your pain, and I appreciate the artistic curves in a Beretta 92 or a 1911, probably as much as you do. But a carry pistol is a tool to save your life with, and esthetics has nothing to do with it. Do you buy a fire extinguisher or a trauma kit for its looks?
Striker-fired polymer pistols work well. That’s why everybody uses them. The 1911 design was great in 1911, but time marches on.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go hug my Mauser broomhandle and say I didn’t mean it.
That’s essentially my thought, too. I love my Springfield XD for its handling and grip comfort. I didn’t buy it for its aesthetics.
And because I didn’t buy it for looks, I don’t care if it gets scuffed or dinged up. It’s a working pistol; it’s going to get scuffed. As long as it still handles “serious social applications” well, that’s fine.
You don’t buy a work truck for its “lines”; you buy it to haul s#!t. The “lines” are secondary — they’ll get dinged from hauling s#!t anyway.
I do love the styling and feel of a good 1911, but my carry guns are made to work, not be works of art.
To J. Kb.: Don’t think of the “modern” polymer pistol as “modern art”. Think of it as a warehouse. Warehouses and “modern” architecture are both ugly, but one is also a sturdy, functional building, and the other is “modern” architecture. 😉
PJW is actually really good, his solo youtube channel only uses infowars as a “springboard” if you will and has no other interactions/talking points with alex jones.
Read Tom Wolfe, who tears into the art world and the architecture world. The “in crowd” hated him for it — because he was right!