When did we stop caring about our fellow man ?

[SoCalDem]

As most of you know by now, I often stumble upon odd websites when googling, and this one caught me by surprise..

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1912/index2.html

LOOK AT THESE FACILITIES

will take some clicking, but I have a feeling that you may come to the same conclusion that I did.

America USED to care about fairly "ordinary people". It shows in the architecture..

Most of these buildings in the click-able links were built at a time when MOST people were dirt poor, and yet these facilities were almost ALL built to be used by the "common man", orphans, mentally ill people, first-generation Americans---born to immigrant parents (probably many never spoke English in their whole lives).

These buildings were spectacular , and sturdy. You KNOW they had to have had all the cutting-edge technology known in that time. and they were PUBLIC BUILDINGS, put into service to RENDER SERVICES to the common man..

They were not PRIVATE enterprises, built for those who could "pay their own way"..

Notice also, how many of these buildings have a church-like presence.. They revered people back then..

a few pics are posted here, but please click the other links..

This is Kansas, but you KNOW that other states did the same thing..

The sad thing is that "modern" people came along, and instead of figuring out a way to preserve many of these buildings, they just tore them down or ignored them into oblivion as they crumbled away. Once gone, their purpose crumbled with them.

We don't "care" for people anymore... Modern facilities often look more like prisons than caretaking facilities.

a few of the pics:

[glitch]

1. It started in 1980 and has been an intentional, steady onslaught since. nt

[MoseyWalker]

15. yep, that's when

it became fashionable to be cruel, and the age of "me-ism" was ushered in.

[brokensymmetry]

2. Good question. May I offer an answer?

Once, we depended upon each other - even the
rich and powerful had a connection to the poor.
The distance between the field hand or sharecropper
and the rich landowner was a single step. Likewise,
the distance between the bootblack and the fashionable
residents of the city.

Now, we don't have that connection - or that dependency.
At least, we don't perceive it. We live in our air-conditioned
houses, travel in our cars, listen to our electronic amusements -
and we don't interact with people.

At such time as we regain community - and I think certain
events will drive us in that direction - we will again
start to care. The transition may not be pleasant.

[melody]

3. The slow, conscious, purposive destruction of the USA

By the modern "Republicans".

[whathappened]

4. get the bull dozer out

we have no time to save the past ,, we need more of these cheap poll building built to house the big box stores that don't even compair to the land marks of yester years , these old buildings were a thing of beauty , all hand crafted with the best hands in there times ,

[LanternWaste]

5. About the time the Industrial Revolution...

About the time the Industrial Revolution began and people got this odd little idea that "I can do it all on my own, I don't need anyone, and no one's gonna take it from me...".

Now it's a philosophy all its' own called "conservatism"

[blues90]

6. Everything is vanishing

Years ago they build things sturdy and with artistic views . Now days they have technology allowing them to design buildings to specs , same with cars , they know they don't need heavy materials to do the same job .

But it is also the lost art and this space age look and cheap materials , the ugly steel and glass look .

I would prefer to go back to the old ways and to repair old buildings but no one really cares to do this now .

[Donnachaidh]

7. if any of those buildings still exist --

They are turned into luxury condos, or medical offices, or law offices. And someone has fat pockets *arranging the deal* :grr:

[JuniperLea]

8. This reminds me of an argument I had several years ago

With my daughter's elementary school principal.

He took the California Lotto funds and replaced all the beautiful, heavy, old, oak with a natural glowing patina, office and teacher desks and other furniture, and replaced it with plastic and aluminum tubing variety of what only looks like desks, chairs and tables.

No amount of talk could make him see that the 50+ year old furniture he was tossing has survived generations and was still sturdy and stately enough to survive several more.

The furniture he tossed was actually tossed. I suggested he could at least have a yard sale and get more money, but no.

When the last of my children left that school, I'd heard there was plans to "upgrade" the outer facade, which was a gorgeous art deco design.

To some people, a sense of taste means the buds on their tongues.

[SoCalDem]

9. And those same people will max out their credit cards to go to Europe

to see "historical buildings" that are still in use, and dearly loved by the locals :)

[JuniperLea]

17. So true

Walk down any street in London and you will see at least one scaffold up where repairs are being made. It's so much smarter to take care of what we have than to try and recreat. It's less expensive and we earn what we save.

[blues90]

11. It's americas toss it out ideals

Everything now is made to last a short time and become landfill . The pride in ones work is not important it's how fast they can throw it up or together and come out with next years new improved model .

One would thing wood would be saved since it is becoming scarce and plastic would be looked down on .

Even the old cars my parents had , had style and I don't recall them ever taking these old cars in for repairs until they were old and worn . Now a new cars falls apart daily .

The new buildings in Hollywood CA are a horror compared to the old wood and brick structures we had 10 or 15 years ago . The entire country is turning into crap . And no one cares but a few .

[David Zephyr]

10. "Easy to Be Hard"

"Easy to Be Hard"
(Music & Lyrics by Gerome Ragni, James Rado & Galt MacDermot. From the Musical "Hair")

How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

And especially people
Who care about strangers
Who care about evil
And social injustice
Do you only
Care about the bleeding crowd?
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend

How can people be so heartless
You know I'm hung up on you
Easy to give in
Easy to help out

And especially people
Who care about strangers
Who say they care about social injustice
Do you only
Care about the bleeding crowd
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

[SoCalDem]

14. That song does sum it up

In times past, people in charge realized that not ALL people were "doing great", and the some people would always need looking after...and there needed to be places for them to be cared for..

These days, it's truly everyone for themselves.

[NashVegas]

12. "Architecture and Morality"

To some people it's an OMD album title, to others, it's the philosophy regarding the art that we live inside.

We have a newly built main branch of our public library, neo-classical design. Yet when I go in there, I don't sense the "weight" that you get from really old public buildings.

And there's a small branch library on the south side of town of modern design, that looks kind of odd, and when you go inside, you feel like you're in a public building in the Swedish countryside. Open spaces, full of geometry, and when you look out the window walls in front, all you see is green grass and trees. It's quite nice.

[JitterbugPerfume]

13. It is a crying shame

The consolidated school house is almost exactly like the building I went to Jr High School in . "They" tore it down and built a very shabby senior housing project that is rife with corruption and neglect,and a very ugly eye sore (I am a senior , age 66 , so I am NOT unaware of the needs of seniors)

That building was the most beautiful thing left in my hometown

[Sapphire Blue]

16. You might want to look into how people were 'cared for' in some of those 'spectacular' buildings.

[Cerridwen]

18. When did we start?

Nope, I'm not being flippant. I think our history; that of Western cultures; may show individual cases of concern for ones peers but it also shows widespread lack of concern for others. I don't think concern for fellow humans by institutions or on a large scale which included those not of ones group, began to make itself known until some time around the Renaissance/Enlightenment. (yes, I'm simplifying - it's for brevity's sake).