Beauty still matters, perhaps more now than ever in a time of a lot of chronic, habitual cynicism.
In fact, the cynicism itself may be symptom of the lack of beauty we either have or have made ourselves numb to through our choices and conditioning to an increasingly more abstract life lived through screens.
It’s objectively hard to be cynical when you are around beauty, and aware of this beauty in your presence.
And yes—I do long fIn a Cynical Age, Beauty Still Matters—and Maybe More Than Ever
Beauty and the exhaustion of modern life
Beauty still matters, perhaps more now than ever in a time of a lot of chronic, habitual cynicism.
In fact, the cynicism itself may be symptom of the lack of beauty we either have or have made ourselves numb to through our choices and conditioning to an increasingly more abstract life lived through screens.
It’s objectively hard to be cynical when you are around beauty, and aware of this beauty in your presence.
And yes—I do long for the classical architecture that became my backdrop for the three years I studied in Austria and traveled around, and for the times I was in and out of London and the English countryside. But I think often what’s more important is becoming present to the smaller beauties that, in varying degrees, we all have access to: the sun, trees, a lovely meal, flowers, candles, the face of a friend.
Why beauty still matters in a cynical culture
There are many philosophical treatises on why beauty matters, with Roger Scruton’s famous BBC documentary and attendant works landing at the top of the list. It’s seen a boom online—often reduced to shareable sound bites rather than the reflective, reverential approach it commands, which I find cheapens it. But, in the end, this cheapening is also just part and parcel of something becoming commonly spoken of, and this is a victory.
The essence of these arguments are that we are a kind of being which instinctively responds to order and beauty, and this calms our bodies, minds, and spirits. This ability within us is innate, and points to our capacity for choice and the interception of reality in a conscious and intuitive way. It reminds that we are receptive beings, affected by the world around us, made for a purpose beyond what we see and indicated by the echoes of that further thing in the ecstatic hints of a beautiful object.
In the end, beauty is deeply human. We are not just materialist constructions only ordered to pure utility or survival: we are unique spiritual beings who derive meaning from things beyond a spreadsheet version of reality. We are made for real love, joy, friendship, God—the things that can perhaps appear useless at first, but upon deeper reflection form the inner heart of all of what is most important in our lives.
The quiet power of beauty and attention
Especially in a time when so many people feel so overwhelmed, beauty stands in stark relief to the noise and chaos of the online world and the breakdown of so many of our bedrock communities and relationships. Beauty reminds us to pause, connect to our truest, deepest inner world, and become more of who we are at the center of ourselves, rather than thin, externalized, mimetically-driven beast-machine hybrids. We are body, soul, spirit, mind, blood, bone—all of this real, beating, and alive.
Beauty gives us a way out of the loneliness of modern life by giving us hope for a day beyond us—both literally and metaphorically by pointing to the eternal.
In my most challenging times, cultivating a deeper awareness of the beauty around me—no matter where I was at the time physically—helped me to focus on what was good, and to consciously fill my heart with gratitude. This practice is often the thin line between despair and a more resigned sorrow that can lead to a recovery of our joy and hope.
KAY CLARITY ARCHIVE 