Probably a better argument than my original one is that evolution explains why there’s so much variety (including why there are so many different kinds of monkeys, and apes, including us.)
I haven’t seen any credible arguments that all religions come from a common root, though some religions certainly like that belief (and others hate it - you’re likely to alienate believers if you try to use that argument.) And yes, Baha’iism reflects more than a millennium of change in Islam as well as its own particular additions, but so do Wahhabism and all the different Sufi and Shi’a groups, and evolution more resembles that diversity than it does just the changes in a single thread of the religion. (Also, just picking Baha’i or one of the other “kinder, gentler” versions of Islam is likely to sound like the same kind of value judgement that “evolved means better” carries.)
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You’re right - Baha’i gets a lot of favorable press coverage, so I should have pointed out some of the less palatable aspects of it, or added something like Salafism to my example.
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Steve Harvey might be the only man still capable of beating Donald Trumpf in the primaries. He’d make a great running mate.
That explains the nice furniture.
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Long ago in days of yore
It all began with a god named Thor
There were Vikings and boats
And some plans for a furniture store
It’s not a bodega, it’s not a mall
And they sell things for apartments smaller than mine
(As if there were apartments smaller than mine)
Ikea! just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen
Ikea! selling furniture for college kids and divorced men
Everyone has a home…
But if you don’t have a home…
you can buy one there!
So rent a car or take the bus
Lay your cash down and put your trust
In the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size
Billy the bookcase says “hello!”
And so does a table whose name is Ingo
And the chair is a ladder-back birch - but his friends call him Karl
Ikea! just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen
Ikea! selling furniture for college kids and divorced men
Everyone has a home…
But if you don’t have a home…
you can buy one there!
Ikea… plywood, brushed steel
Ikea… meatballs, tasty
Ikea… Allen wrenches
All of them for free
All of them for me!
I’m sorry I said Ikea sucks
I just bought a table for sixty bucks
And a chair and a lamp
And a shelf and some candles for you
I was a doubter just like you
'til I saw the American dream come true
In New Jersey, they got a goddamn Swedish parade
Ikea! just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen
Ikea! selling furniture for college kids and divorced men
Everyone has a home…
But if you don’t have a home…
you can buy one there!
–Jonathan Coulton
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I was thinking more along the lines of Kaare Klint.
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That’s gorgeous. Is it comfortable?
I’ve always found the most alarmingly ugly furniture is the comfiest. We had one that was like floating on clouds, but looked like a giant, velvet-covered oyster from a fever dream.
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If I could afford original Danish Modern I would be very comfortable indeed.
But seriously, one of the things that sets that movement apart from much of the Bauhaus that inspired it is its humanism. Lots of rounded corners and sanded edges; materials that are “warm” to the touch; and never forgetting that furniture is meant to be used by people, not just exemplify some rarefied aesthetic ideal. Consequently, even the simplest unupholstered chairs are surprisingly easy to sit on.
Another result, unintended but telling, is that unlike most other Modernist furniture, it still looks good with signs of life. Blankets and clothing left on and around it. A folded newspaper. Last night’s hot chocolate mug you forgot to put away. Most Modern rooms basically require a full-time housekeeper because as soon as you drape a sweater over the back of the sofa the place looks like it’s been taken over by carnivorous apes, but Danish treats people as raisons d’être rather than inconveniences.
So I’m pretty sure it’s comfortable, yeah.
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It looks a bit like the deck chairs on the Titanic:
It’s interesting to see that the supports from the back have been taken away; the lines are also cleaner.
And what would those areas be, in this case?
Bringing back the retrograde social mores of the 1930’s and 40’s? Did his entire family die in a fire or something? Because it seems like there should have been at least one elderly black relative who would be willing to point out to him that those weren’t such great times for a variety of reasons. Maybe they were eaten by a gastreous ball…
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