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Berlin is the best proof that capitalism destroys culture. We should probably find a way to prevent that from happening. The current German and Berlin governmen
by immibis 1y ago
Berlin is the best proof that capitalism destroys culture. We should probably find a way to prevent that from happening. The current German and Berlin government would rather accelerate it though - besides the funding thing, they're currently ramming a highway expansion straight through a cultural area.
To answer the question in replies, good East Berlin developed in the relative anarchy when the Soviet Union collapsed and no new system was really established yet. (Being able to exchange deutschemarks for groceries is not capitalism - they had that in communism too.) The western end of Berlin, by contrast, wasn't culturally interesting in the same way, and didn't change much when the wall fell. Not that symphony orchestras and painting galleries aren't culture, but they're not the kind we're talking about here, the kind that develops bottom up when people are given the freedom to do what they want.
dang informed me by email that this is a bad comment and I deserve to be, and have been, punished for posting it.
- Thorrez 1y agoDid the prior good Belin culture develop under a economic system other than capitalism?
- worldsayshi 1y agoYeah I don't agree that this proves something about capitalism but it does indicate that an abundance of cheap housing/buildings makes culture thrive.
- pantalaimon 1y agoIt's politics that prevents the construction of cheap housing, not capitalism.
- immibis 1y agoCapitalism is a subset of politics
- pantalaimon 1y agoBut capitalism doesn't have an interest in prohibiting housing being built in certain areas or limiting density to a fraction of what was possible 130 years ago.
- worldsayshi 1y agoIt doesn't? People owning housing has an interest in keeping housing supply low to make the value of their assets go up.
- worldsayshi 1y agoDon't you think that a lot of that politics stems from politicians wanting the value of houses in places where they (or their friends) live to go up rather than down though?
- lukan 1y ago"but it does indicate that an abundance of cheap housing/buildings makes culture thrive." Not on its own, though. Plenty of abandoned/underpopulated cheap places in europe that do not thrive. But it certainly is beneficial. (in the case of Berlin, there was for example a special effect, that all germans living in west berlin did not had to go to the army (to not having to shoot their relatives in east berlin) - so lots of counterculture people evading the army came to Berlin and they created culture)
- TacticalCoder 1y ago[dead]