Moscow apartment building near VDNH, 1994
When people say it is easier to destroy, they mean to demolish, like blowing up a stadium or something. But obviously the original metaphor that claims an easy destruction is not intended for the case of a complete destruction, at least not as it applies to our lives hopefully. The truth is, mechanically it’s much more difficult to take a building apart, and this is the reason they blow up the large structures despite the negative environmental and urban impact.
Of course it takes time and effort to design a building but construction is rather straightforward. Yet after you permanently connect building components, taking them apart is difficult. Things get cemented, glued to each other. Try taking two cemented bricks apart without damaging the bricks. In life we don’t destroy, we try to untangle first. After you build the virtual structures taking them apart is close to impossible without a severe damage. It’s like climbing uphill is so much easier and less dangerous than going downhill.
This is the reason a divorce is much more complicated than a marriage and leaving a culture, a country, or a job without the tear wounds is so hard. This is also the reason why every sloppy, dysfunctional and poorly designed structure in the world is still standing. Indeed blowing things up is never a preferred option, but sometimes it might be the only option.
photo flickr/olgasch
- Further Reading:
- The Ethos of the Dubai Inc.
- 10 Similarities between a Chabad House and a Las Vegas Casino
- Modern Architecture at the Backdrop of Alienation
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think that the correct application of this analogy as it applies to human relationships, would be to say that it is much easier to let a relationship go bad, or even to ruin a relationship, then it is to work at maintaining and developing a relationship. Clearly amongst people as amongst things, disassembly is by far more difficult then assembly. Yet to destroy is more difficult then to build almost as a law of nature, since there is only one way to get things right, and many ways in which they can go wrong.
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