The National Civic Art Society has long championed a revival of classical architecture and undoubtedly exerted influence on policy makers in connection with the Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture. In the proud youth of the republic, it was natural to draw government buildings as if they were destined to last forever, radiating the same kind of timeless authority that distinguished the prototypes of antiquity. Architecture, however, like most other institutions of Western civilization, has become a battleground for politicians, from the right and the left. Symbols of Greco-Roman legacy, together with Christianity — the very foundations of our society — are under attack.

Some phenomena and trends in society are believed to portend the imminent demise of civilization. It is like interpreting the self-destructive, morbid behavior of a person. Observations may revolve around self-hatred, depraved excesses, and the ominous denial of everything that is good in life, e.g. the beauty of the world. As it happens, a striking aversion to beauty would seem to be at the root of twentieth-century modernism—from the very beginning, modernism has behaved like a disease of the soul. As the symptom of an underlying, life-threatening melancholy. Our entire civilization is suffering.

It is customary to date the aesthetic collapse of the West to the interwar years. Interpreted as a purgatory, disciplinary, and — ultimately — necessary retaliation against the intellectual avant-gardes for the atrocities of World War I, the implacable attack on tradition became a turning point in modern history. The motley crew of rebels, who came together to storm the existing culture, invoked the unforgivable sacrifice of young soldiers and the dream of a reborn world. Actually, however, the standard-bearers of (Italian) futurism anticipated the course of events just after the turn of the century, shaking up accustomed notions of sublimity and equanimity in academia. The ground was, so to speak, ripe for change before the war broke out. By all accounts, the West had already become unsure of itself and showed the first signs of fatigue.

For the rest of society, the significance........

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