An anon on 4chan makes an interesting observation on the effects of beauty and ugliness in one’s surroundings:
Everything is ugly now, not just cars.
The drywalls in your home, the fake wood art, the plastic, artificial supermarkets, the soulless ads on tv, the corporate speak, the clothes you wear, everything is ugly and sterile and odorless.
By design.
Beauty breeds motivation. A sense of meaning and purpose. They don’t want you having that. The want you meek and docile and depressed. Bright colors and sharp angles create corresponding thoughts. Bold designs create bold characters that’s why everything is round and curated as not to give any signs of excitement. Like a wolf without it’s teeth.
It plays a huge role psychologically, each part alone is trivial but together they create a world of unease, one in which you’re not a part in, more like a guest, or a cog. Everywhere you go you feel like a foreign in your own country. The huge Walmart signs reminding you that you’re merely just a spec, fighting for scraps in front of something much bigger. Your unconscious thinking of you as subhuman. You aren’t aware of it but it’s there, you start to self identify and self categorize, as less than human. And that’s the plan. Subhuman with no self respect and pride, people who don’t feel comfortable in their own skin, won’t rebel.
Have you ever thought why your classroom looks like a white room with white desks so the white artificial lights keep reflecting back at your eyes no matter where you look? It’s a control tactic.
While I think this anon’s observations are very on point, one can certainly resist the psychological effects of everyday ugliness by adding beautiful things in one’s own environment. Furthermore, from my personal experience, learning to create beautiful things, be it art or music, also gives one a pretty hefty mental resistance to the demoralizing effects of the ugliness that is everywhere in life.
Lastly, I’ve also noticed different cultures having different attitudes toward beauty and ugliness – some foreign countries I’ve been to are a lot less tolerant of ugliness than the US, while others actively try to introduce beauty in public environments. Not all hope is lost for humanity on this matter.
Perhaps this anon is simply a younger person who doesn’t have too much control over his own surroundings yet, and that adds to the pessimistic lens in which he interprets his observations.
Original screen cap:
Temple of Zagan 