6 Comments
User's avatar
MMP's avatar

I can't unsee it now. I hope they change it back before I have to renew my passport again.

Steve Stewart's avatar

Please keep us posted.

You’re absolutely right: look at the USSR’s depressingly ugly and poorly constructed buildings and Chairman Mao’s dehumanizing uniforms for his entirely enslaved “citizenry.”

Beauty has no rational basis in a mechanical, god-rejecting view of the universe: only functionality or not.

Howardo's avatar

Uglification of government buildings, housing, and documents is by design, to depress patriotism and discourage citizens.

Fred's avatar

What an aesthetic change (for the worse)! And, I agree with the power of symbolism and the importance of American pride in country.

My beef is that we could make a passport that has a pop-up Abraham Lincoln waving a flag and singing the Star Spangled Banner, but it would do nothing to change the way the bureaucracy behind all this is taking over and negatively affecting our lives. By bureaucracy, I mean all of it (not just government, but healthcare system, banking, etc.). I literally average several hours of every day just trying to straighten out "issues."

Thomas F Davis's avatar

I recall being so impressed when my son's first passport arrived that I sent Secretary of State Hilary Clinton an email congratulating the State Department with a job well done. Such a shame this art was abandoned. Were the other pages similarly butchered?

LFPeg's avatar

No, they are at least as nice and are numbered.