>decadent Capitalism
One of the most notable features of American capitalism today is how much stunning ugliness it produces - hideous strip malls, suburban developments, etc. Wal-Mart is an organized aesthetic crime. The point was brought home to me a few years ago: a mile or two inland from the Oregon coast, surely one of the more beautiful natural landscapes on earth, I stopped at a convenience store that was made of corrugated tin. The ugliness emerges right out of the American culture and political economy - a Protestant suspicion of beauty and pleasure combined with cost minimization and lowest common denominator marketing. Against that, the pursuit of beauty is a political act.
Doug