An Act of Ugliness

Kahneman's happiness research revealed that while aesthetics don't impact happiness as much as other parameters, unlike them, it affects happiness in the long term - one doesn't get used to it. One doesn't get used to a sea view, unlike winning the lottery, which has no long-term effect on happiness. Aesthetic culture - far removed from Israel - was an essential part of the lifestyle in the ancient world, and contributed to shaping society in the long term more than any law or leader. This is the secret of classical cultures, which were far more aesthetic cultures than modern ones, which revolve around ethics

Everyone knows that the ugly is ugly - and that's the beauty (Source)

The head of a system, for example, the head of state or the Chief of General Staff or a CEO of a corporation or even a head of a family, shapes the aesthetics of the system much more than the policy - because they don't really have the practical ability to command, but only to shape the spirit of the commander. In fact, aesthetics was originally soft ethics - what is appropriate to do and how things are done. In large systems, it's difficult to control, so the ruler doesn't have much executive power but does have aesthetic leadership, and therefore is often chosen according to taste. Like Pharaoh, whose power was mainly aesthetic, and the cult of immortality embodied the aesthetics of Egypt, powerfully linking art to eternity (=from the word victory - over death). Therefore, it's not absurd to choose a manager based on their beauty, their splendor, that's exactly what is wanted. And therefore, the head of a system has great power to destroy aesthetic norms within it, or to establish them. This is the essence of representation, and the reason it's never given up, despite being a severe distraction to managerial attention and therefore also to business or other profit, and even when the head of the system is the busiest in the world.

Aesthetics expands a person's mind, according to Pirkei Avot [Ethics of the Fathers], meaning it is a continuous factor for happiness, which doesn't wear off. One doesn't get used to a beautiful woman or a pleasant house or a beautiful view. One doesn't get used to beautiful breasts in a relationship - it affects happiness throughout the entire relationship. On the other hand, one does get used to an expensive house, a new car, a raise in salary. Therefore, aesthetics was linked to the imperishable, the eternal, to what persists in a system. Art preceded religion and created religion, unlike the Jewish religion which is a detachment of religion from material aesthetics in favor of spiritual aesthetics, and therefore to what persists to infinity (because even matter perishes). But the aesthetic ability of prehistoric man created the cult, the special objects and rituals, and not vice versa. Like a child who gets excited about a beautiful object and gives it meaning. And since the object is inanimate and fixed, unlike the living or natural beauty, the attraction to the aesthetics of the artificial is related to the attraction to eternity, and therefore its first peak was around burial and death. The Jewish opposition to the eternal material artificial, that is, to the statue of God, stemmed from the opposition to the pyramids, which were an exceptional extremization of the eternal artificial.

After all, aesthetics wasn't invented in humans, other animals also seek a beautiful mate, but once humans created tools, then beautiful tools, beautiful skins, beautiful carved stones, and so on, were valuable. In other words, for humans, aesthetics was transferred from the subject to the object, and not just to the beautiful environment, as with animals, but to a beautiful artificial object. And then religious value was given to objects that were perceived as especially beautiful, or for example in ceremonial burial. That's why we marvel at a painting of an apple and not at an apple. Because the beautiful artificial is more precious to us than the natural. And that's why it's so important for people to have a beautiful computer, because it's the pinnacle of tools in our time, just as in the past a beautiful car and a beautiful watch were important. That's why the entire digital world is much more aesthetic than the physical world and its design standards are the highest in all culture. And morality? It stems entirely from the ugly. From the extremization of what is not aesthetic. From the disgusting, which is the root of the sense of evil. Therefore, aesthetic ethics is the best ethics, and in contrast, ethical aesthetics is the ugliest aesthetics.