Continuing my ruminations on Frutiger Aero, I realized I felt a similar vibe seeing old Soviet propaganda art.
I love Soviet art. Not so much the country. That's the difficult part of navigating affections for aesthetics, because I can find myself in the company of not-so-great individuals, like finding out that a local history buff who for some strange reason only assembles models of German tanks might have some opinions we don't align on.
It raises the eyebrows, eh? And that's kind of how I feel with liking Soviet propaganda art while knowing that most Capital-C Communists would love to murder me in some glorious cultural revolution.
Anyway...
It all comes back to a future promised. There's a word that eludes me that is defined by a nostalgia for a place one has not been, and I think it gets more specific in that you can desperately miss a potential future, and I feel that Western society is definitely in that, "Oh gods, my heart has broken through Time's Ineffable Arrow, and I miss being in that future world of bubbles and bright blue skies and verdant fields."
Those who lived under "Communism" lived in the presence of a world that those in power claimed was for them. Those who currently live under Capitalism are living in the presence of a world that those in power claim is for them. The only thing we had and have to do was and is ignore human suffering and we could snack on the crumbs that would fall from the table. Look at our glorious space program! Look at our Playstation 5s! Be thankful for what you have...
To be clear, this isn't a Doomerism post. While I'm not so ignorant that I can't see the conveyor belt of suck that's lined up years and years of instant ramen spun from turds excreted by the rich and powerful, I'm emphatically saying I have a strange hope for what lies beyond that conveyor, when every oligarch, monarch, and tyrant is dead and cold in the ground, that we might have it all: glorious space programs and verdant forests and food aplenty. There's absolutely zero reason we can't have that 100% fully automated gay space communism that people like to joke about, except that some rich asshole or nation is in the way.
When that future finally does come to pass, it's not going to be because of some nation or president who finally found it in their hearts to Give A Hoot. It's going to be because we willed it into existence with the force and passion of a people at the edge of oblivion.
Give us our fucking techno-fish bubbles, our unions, and our diverse, healthy ecosystems, you sonsofbitches.
