"People make efforts to make our lives more livable. Teachers, care-givers, service workers, scientists, activists quickly come to mind. So do beautification initiatives to refurbish broken or blighted neighborhoods. Such efforts say a lot about the kind of society we want to be, our values, our aspirations our moral ethos. But while not explicitly identified or closely analyzed, uglification initiatives also abound. They also speak trenchantly about our values, our morality, our humanity."
"It includes visually offensive spectacles such as Trump's ostentatious dinner parties at Mar-a-Lago while more than 40 million Americans are starving, or Trump's erecting a gaudy ballroom to replace the bulldozed East Wing of the White House, or the massive banners hailing Trump that ornament government buildings, or Trump's plan to build a triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial that replicates the Bolzano Victory Monument in Italy honoring fascist leader Benito Mussolini, or Trump's military parade in Washington D.C. commemora"
President Donald Trump indicated a desire for a two-person mayoral general election to increase chances against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani. People undertake beautification projects—teachers, care-givers, service workers, scientists, activists and neighborhood refurbishments—to improve livability and express societal values and moral ethos. Uglification initiatives also proliferate and communicate values, morality, and humanity. The 1958 novel The Ugly American depicted insensitive diplomacy in Southeast Asia, inspired creation of the Peace Corps, and foreshadowed the Vietnam War. Uglification in Trump's America appears as visually offensive spectacles: ostentatious Mar-a-Lago dinner parties amid hunger, a gaudy ballroom replacing the East Wing, massive pro-Trump banners, triumphal monuments, and military parades.
Read at www.amny.com
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