Aesthetics

Thought experiment: you go to two parties. At one party, everybody is drinking out of plastic red solo cups, at another, people are drinking out of thick, sturdy glass beer mugs. Can this one difference, which seems to be only a surface-deep circumstance, really mean more than what it is? Is it really that important? Do I just hate red plastic cups?

The answer to all of these questions is “Yes.”

But back to the thought experiment at hand, despite the seeming triviality of the distinction, at the plastic red solo cup party, you are going to feel different, think differently, and act differently than the glass beer mug party. 

Let’s look into what goes into the decision to have plastic or glass cups at a party, and you are the prospective host. 

First, let’s consider the benefits of the red plastic cups. They are cheap. You can buy enough for most parties with less than ten bucks. There is no risk of a clumsy guest dropping one and risking shattered glass blanketing the floor. The best part of all, there is no need to clean them! Just throw them in the garbage, and you have done your job.

Second, let’s consider the benefits of using glass or ceramic cups. They are expensive, maybe not exorbitantly so, but they certainly cost more than the plastic ones. They are risky; one clumsy guest causes the loss of one glass cup, and you have lost more money than what a whole pack of plastic cups would set you back. Finally, when the party’s all over, and everybody goes back home for the night, you are left with all these dirty glasses to put in the dishwasher.

With the plastic cups seemingly better across every metric, why would any wise person choose to host a party with glass cups? Is there some secret benefit of glass cups or some hidden detriment of plastic cups that we have overlooked? The answer is yes; we have overlooked aesthetics.

Now, you might think that this is all silly, and I have wasted my time writing this article. But aesthetics matter. An architect named Christopher Alexander puts it perfectly:

“Everything that we see in our surroundings—everything—either slightly raises our spirits or slightly lowers them.”

This apparently comes true for us when we think about soulless gray Soviet-era homogenous apartment buildings. Something about architecture can just crush your soul. The opposite is true as well. We think of towering gothic cathedrals, elegant Roman columns, or even a quaint little cottage. Something about architecture can uplift you in mysterious ways.

If you still aren’t sold on the importance of aesthetics, consider this: you choose between two meals: a steak dinner with asparagus and potatoes on the side, and the same thing, but thrown into a blender. One resembles a wonderful meal, the other resembles dog food. They both have the same nutritional content, and they both end up in your stomach in pretty much the same condition. Which one are you picking?

The reason why you picked the first meal is because you do care about aesthetics, and you agree with Christopher Alexander – and me.

Part of the thing about being human is that we want to live in a home, not merely an area defined by square footage; we want to drink coffee or tea, not eat caffeine pills; we want to live in homes, not ‘pods’ defined in terms of “x feet, by y feet, by z feet.”

We don’t stand in awe of beautiful cathedrals or other pieces of great architecture for their utility. They are quite an inefficient use of space, but we love them because of the little flourishes of beauty that adorn their surfaces.

We don’t just wear clothes just to protect ourselves from the environment, we wear clothes to express ourselves. We desire clothes that “look good” on us.

People who strive to do great things with their life, aren’t motivated to merely ‘check the box’ or ‘go through the motions’ or ‘just get it over with.’ It was Oscar Wilde who said, “A fool is someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.” Those who strive for greatness are motivated by the value of things, whatever the cost.Let us not be fools. Let us strive, not merely to cover ourselves, but to dress well. Let us marvel, not at how cheap plastic cups are, but how charming our glassware is. Let us admire, not how many floors we can cram into a skyscraper, but at how beautifully we may adorn the exteriors of our buildings. Let us appreciate, not how easy life is, but how beautiful it is – and can be. Let us strive for greatness, not only in aesthetics, but in all.