This article is not about personal agreement or disagreement with Donald Trump's infamous border wall, nor does it discuss the practicality of certain wall proposals or engage with the idea of the wall as a symbol. This opinion piece is simply about the baffling idea of why one would focus on the aesthetics of a border wall.
The concept of beauty
When discussing beauty I could go into color theory, symmetry, or formalism where there is a science behind beauty and why individuals find things beautiful. However, ultimately beauty comes down to personal taste, the ability to perceive, cultural influence, and desire to seek aesthetically pleasing things.
This is why people's taste in music, paintings, landscape, and film can differ dramatically. Furthermore, this is also why artistic arguments never can be truly factual nor truly won and are ultimately impractical. There are common visual elements that people enjoy but when getting down to the nitty-gritty, beauty is not universal and discussions on beauty become even more meaningless when discussing tools of practicality.
A design of our Steel Slat Barrier which is totally effective while at the same time beautiful! pic.twitter.com/sGltXh0cu9
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 21, 2018
Tools of practicality don't need to be beautiful
Tools of practically have no inherent reason to be beautiful.
Even the most staunch devotees to making everything aesthetically pleasing will eventually admit that beauty must sometimes be sacrificed for practicality. According to some supporters, Trump's border wall it is supposed to be a practical tool to limit illegal immigration into the United States. Why even mention the beauty of a tool?
It is nonsense, as no one sensible is mad about the wall due to aesthetic reasons but rather for ethical, environmental, and or economic reasons. There is no sane reason to babble about the artistic merits of a border wall because tons of citizens will always disagree with the artistic value of a border wall. Its an object and artistic merit does not matter.
It just potentially derails the conversation and does not give bonus points to support of the wall.
....It will be beautiful and, at the same time, give our Country the security that our citizens deserve. It will go up fast and save us BILLIONS of dollars a month once completed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018
Conclusion
Now to my knowledge, I seem to be the only individual ranting upon Donald Trump stating the wall's beauty, so the conversation has thankfully not been derailed. This just goes back to my earlier point that no one cared about the look of the wall. Why did Donald Trump address the beauty of the wall if no one cared or even brought it up? To me, Donald Trump pointing out the beauty of the wall is neither good nor bad; it's just quite odd and pointless. To bring this to a personal note, I don't think a bunch of spikey steel polls in the middle of the desert is not very beautiful nor aesthetically pleasing unless directed by George Miller.