> World Wars 1 & 2 happened, shattering the remaining sense of aesthetic unity we had Who is "we"? > form a charming aesthetic that has been singularly unachi

> World Wars 1 & 2 happened, shattering the remaining sense of aesthetic unity we had Who is "we"? > form a charming aesthetic that has been singularly unachievable except in ersatz form since... deep questions of cultural unity lurk here... Again, cultural unity amongst whom? At best this is ambiguous, at worst it sounds like a dog whistle for a return to the aesthetics that accompanied the monarchist era. There are real reasons that aesthetics evolve. For one thing, the hyper detailed and biological shapes and themes of classical aesthetics require a lot of poor, skilled, artisanal laborers, which is why they mostly appear on the buildings of the elite like monarchs. Regular people during those eras lived in decidedly plainer homes, whose aesthetic charm was mostly a function of their simple shapes and materials. That started to shift with mass production of decorative elements. The ability to mass produce what were once expensive decorative elements eventually resulted in their becoming passé and kitsch. Those trends are as much responsible for the aesthetic shifts as the traumas of the world wars.