Aesthetically Pleasing Places often have terrible Politics
Why does it have to be that way?
All politics must be aestheticized, with the objective to visualize and strive for the society you ideally want to live in. However, people who already have access to beautiful places or high social capital tend to be content with the status quo and don’t want to rock the boat.
source: @MassJumbo on X
Rank has its privileges. Those who can hoard resources, including public safety, social capital and artistic/cultural heritage. This is unremarkable. From their perspective (and that of the regime) the good things in life are scare and should not be wasted. It has to be this way because the leadership classes have no urgent need to be concerned for the wellbeing of subordinate classes.