So, powerful people spending exuberant amounts of money on building institutions to enforce their power, is alright
I never said nor implied that.
I’m just saying I can appreciate the feelings of awe. Awe isn’t always just a positive thing, it’s just a powerful thing. And it’s obvious to me that those ill-gotten gains that were used to build the massive cathedrals actually did also serve a purpose. Since an institution which can generate awe like that is obviously going to be more influential than one which doesn’t. Especially in the middle-ages with a poorly literate population.
I’m interested in reading about WWII. I’d like to one day visit Holocaust museums to actually understand the scale of the horror. It too, would be a type of powerful feeling, kind of like awe, but I I’d hate to use the word in this context, as it’d be like awe at the horrendous things humans can become. But because “awesome” has such a positive connotation in modern parlance, I emphasise that I wouldn’t use the word in that context. Impactful. Yeah. That’s what I expect it would be. Staring at churches isn’t impactful to me, but since they do generate feelings of awe, I can understand that they must have been impactful to a lot of people throughout history. That’s not me defending the morality of said impacts. Just talking about them existing.
So, powerful people spending exuberant amounts of money on building institutions to enforce their power, is alright as long as it generates awe?
Fascism through beauty i guess.
I never said nor implied that.
I’m just saying I can appreciate the feelings of awe. Awe isn’t always just a positive thing, it’s just a powerful thing. And it’s obvious to me that those ill-gotten gains that were used to build the massive cathedrals actually did also serve a purpose. Since an institution which can generate awe like that is obviously going to be more influential than one which doesn’t. Especially in the middle-ages with a poorly literate population.
I’m interested in reading about WWII. I’d like to one day visit Holocaust museums to actually understand the scale of the horror. It too, would be a type of powerful feeling, kind of like awe, but I I’d hate to use the word in this context, as it’d be like awe at the horrendous things humans can become. But because “awesome” has such a positive connotation in modern parlance, I emphasise that I wouldn’t use the word in that context. Impactful. Yeah. That’s what I expect it would be. Staring at churches isn’t impactful to me, but since they do generate feelings of awe, I can understand that they must have been impactful to a lot of people throughout history. That’s not me defending the morality of said impacts. Just talking about them existing.
Nice. I am going to start thinking of going to church like going to the Holocaust museum from now on. I like that.