We must reclaim solarpunk from authoritarian regimes

An aesthetic race for the future has begun. At stake: freedom and democracy. That, and preventing the collapse of planetary civilization.

Left, a model of Albert Speer’s “Volkshalle” (People’s Hall): An authoritarian boyish fever dream playing on the grandeur of the empires of the past. Right , The Rain Vortex in Singapore Changi Airport: An authoritarian, top-down, Disney-land version of solarpunk aesthetics — but one that today has the world holding its breath and longing for more.

Without an aesthetic program, it is impossible to truly recreate today’s society in desired directions. We need more than just ideas of the things we wish to avoid (ecological disaster, pandemics, famine, wars, existential risks from technology…). We need more than a moral mission (e.g. “remedy suffering” or “save the animals” as discussed in one of my previous articles) or even the search for truth (“the mysteries of the universe, as revealed by science, in humanity’s greatest quest…”).

We also need an aesthetic longing that calls us: a sense of beauty, of good taste, of inspiration, of creativity.

The Nazis understood this very well. And so do the authoritarian regimes of today. Democratic nice guys, on the other hand, seem to struggle grasping this. As such, only authoritarian regimes have successfully managed to apply the aesthetics that speaks to the longings of 21st century humans: solarpunk.

I believe that the solarpunk movement and its aesthetics offer some of the most viable pathways for such an impulse — one that is capable of carrying forward…