I decided it’s time for a bit of a manifesto. I’m a psychiatric historian, devoted to serious research and, as I’m sure you can tell, susceptible to bouts of fury and passion when I observe what I feel is vile erasure, hideous caricaturization and what I can only assume is selective ignorance dwelling in the realm of my work. In short, this is what you should know:
The way that Massachusetts, and for that matter, the rest of the country, treats its former state hospitals, and, by extension, everything they represent, is deplorable. The powers that be destroy Victorian (and Edwardian) architectural masterpieces and erect yuppie colonies in their place, hollow condominium structures where Prozac lulled newlyweds race around in moderately expensive cars, in deliberate ignorance that they’re supporting a corporation (such as Avalon Communities) which facilitates the American trend of burying or demolishing the unfavorable in our past in favor of a sleek, ignorant, vacuous existence.
Note: I’m certainly not knocking Prozac, but one can’t ignore the irony of pharmaceutically treated tenants paying to live in perceived luxury on the grounds of a former “Insane Asylum.” In addition….I certainly don’t pretend to be above luxurious housing, in fact, I’m rather a fan of it, (not that I’d ever go as far as to call Avalon luxurious, far from it, but I do rather enjoy needling it’s perception of itself) but I promise you I’ll never move into a place which had, after the original building was demolished, replaced a former national historic landmark.
I’m not a “bleeding heart.” You know me, I’m for the most part a vicious elitist, accused of being cold and often pleaded with to “soften” her heart. But there are things I care about. I firmly believe that a society can be judged by how we treat those who need our mercy-not those who deem themselves worthy or deserving of various entitlements…but those who are truly helpless. I find it interesting and rather grotesque that history and philanthropy are collectively as trendy as they have become…or perhaps as they always have been. I have been accused of stating the unpopular. Perhaps, if I’m lucky, I’ll be accused of championing the unloved.
