Medieval America
by Lionel Bascom — March 3rd, 2007 — 2 comments
I first saw what has come to be modern architecture way back in 1976 when the Renaissance Center was put up on the riverfront downtown in Detroit. The hotel complex was surrounded by high concrete walls – massive bunkers really. It was a message to the city — keep out. This complex is for the safety and comfort of our visitors, not the host city that was then called the Murder Capitol of America.
Little did we know then that this kind of construction was a wave of the future.
“After 9/11, a craving for the solidity of walls reasserted itself. And the wars on terror, and fractious peaces, enforced it,” the Times said today. “The Green Zone in Baghdad, Jerusalem’s separation barrier, the concrete bollards that line corporate headquarters on Park Avenue — all are emblems of an unintended new mentality.
“The most chilling example of the new medievalism is New York’s Freedom Tower, which was once touted as a symbol of enlightenment. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it rests on a 20-story, windowless fortified concrete base decorated in prismatic glass panels in a grotesque attempt to disguise its underlying paranoia. And the brooding, obelisk-like form above is more of an expression of American hubris than of freedom.”
9:50 PM in Uncategorized, World Trade Center, Related Stories, Freedom Tower News, America at War
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Detroit of 1976 is not New York in 2007. American hubris is not what the Freedom Tower represents at all. New York has been attacked by terrorist thugs, and a guarded structure will provide the security that will ensure the safety of all those who visit and work within this, yes, symbol of enlightenment.
3,000 New Yorkers were murdered instantaneously on 9/11, and a barrier against any possible disaster, be it manmade or of natural origin, is just plain, common sense. Nothing wrong with that.
Jeanne · March 4th, 2007 at 1:14 am
To comment on your title, America is indeed beginning to bear medieval attributes.
In the past 15 years, I have seen neighborhoods sprout up where individual homes, often inhabited by two professionals, have the appearance of feudal castles, inclusive of rock walls, manicured gardens, and some even contain a semblance of a moat. All summer, one can see their gardens and expansive lawns tended, as well as their homes cleaned by immigrants, who could not even consider living in one of these grossly expensive neighborhoods.
Moreover, depending on where one lives in the United States, there is an emergence of varied language speakers, many who now expect government agencies and businesses of America to cater to their linguistic needs, slowly, but assuredly, displacing English as the common language of Americans.
Additionally, in many communities across this country, God has taken a back seat to religious dogma and fervor. Religious leaders demand a tithe from anyone seeking spiritual inspiration, and competetion for the human soul leads many places of worhip to abandon freedom of the human spirit in preference of conscience control.
Also, corporate American now finds it necessary to provide services and gain financial partnership from outside the borders of the United States. Many times, one may place a phone call for assistance with technical needs, and the service technician lives on the other side of the planet.
Yes, this growing barrier between the opulant and the poor, the blending of languages, the increase of religious zeal, and the mobilization of business enterprises all characterize a Medieval America, which can only mean one thing: assuredly, there will be a Renaissance.
Jeanne · March 4th, 2007 at 8:13 am