 The splotches are nothing in particular, so they can't be beautiful. Two, modern society is preoccupied by convenience and utility. We don't strive for transcendence. We don't recognize that anything like transcendence can exist. We reject it as a category. And so we build giant, gray, depressing, nondescript buildings and we fill our cities with them. Our ancestors built palaces and cathedrals. They were literally reaching up towards the sky, towards something greater. That's why they built those buildings.