language, architecture, and you

so much of culture is designed to reinforce the elite that sometimes it's hard to see..it's just second nature..so mundane you hardly notice...unless you're not part of the hegemony...then it's plain as could be. nativists everywhere insist on the use of the "national" language as a symbol of belonging. this may be co-opted by elites as a rationalization, but the destruction of language is an honored tactic in an elite's colonialization of a people. language can provide shelter for cultural resistance to an elite's purpose, and their attcks on it don't have so much to do with belonging as eliminating the establishment (or perpetuation) of an alternative to the elite's influence and control. at some point most peripheral european languages have been repressed and subgbornly maintained at the same time. the irish kept gaelic alive when the british banned its teaching through the use of "hedge schools". my carpatho-rusyn grandmother was a subject of the austro-hungarian empire and bitterly resented the use of the hungarian language at school. the language of a stateless people is always at risk. how many languages have been destroyed under the guise of "assimilation"? and isn't acceptance of an elite's authority a central issue in their concept of assimilation? an offensive against a language is an offensive against a culture...shouldn't acceptance cut both ways? it would if it were voluntary...there's nothing voluntary about being subjugated...elites may not be nationalistic...indeed elites are trans-national, but adopting nationalist forms can provide them with additional weapons in their war against the "other".
the use of space is another facet of elite control. why are "official" buildings so massive? the scale is meant to intimidate and engender the feeling of what geert mak calls ant-ness...the smallness of the individual in the face of the collective power of the elite..like a massive military or an efficient secret police its aim is to project authority and absoluteness...even in its ruins...state buildings can be rendolent of a past greatness (look at rome) that can be utilized by elites that claim direct descent from that past culture (look at mussolini...and why are so many building from britan's imperial era and those things along the mall in washington dc neo-classical?) hitler and speer evolved a concept of "ruins architecture", and their plans for germania ( to be built after the clearing of the rubble from bombed out berlin) were based, in part, on the size and qualituy of ruins those buildings would leave as a testament to future germans about the power of the third reich. urban centers here are full of architecture that speaks of corporate power...they are not accomodating to human existance...stand at the bottom of what was the sears tower ( i don't give a rat's ass what they've renamed it or their
ballparks either) and look up...what's human about that? "it's a struggle to see what's at the end of your nose." (that may not be exact, but it's at least close to what orwell said...same spirit anyway) reinforcing of the hegemonistic culture goes on every day...stop and give it a thought now and then...you may not be happier, but you'll have a more realistic picture of how you live.
happy mother's day to all you moms out there!