Hicks with very little taste': Why Silicon Valley and the far right are so determined to build colossal monuments

"During a trip to San Francisco, Ross Calvin, entrepreneur and cryptocurrency engineering enthusiast, gazed at the city's bay with a sense of wonder: it lacked a Statue of Liberty like the one in New York. Seven years later, he's moving forward to realize his utopia: erecting a 137-meter-tall nickel-and-bronze statue of Prometheus on Alcatraz Island. The work would surpass the New York statue in height and cost approximately $450 million."

"For the monument to be built, the businessman needs Donald Trump to reclassify the island, although according to U.S. media, he expects him to be receptive given his fixation on aesthetics and symbols. A few months ago, Trump himself approved the construction of a vast National Garden of American Heroes, where he will pay homage to 250 figures of the nation through statues created specifically for the occasion."

"Trump and Calvin share a common idea: to redefine their own version of Western values. They are not alone in rejecting modernity as a cultural identity. The owners of American tech companies have shifted ideologically toward Trumpism."

Ross Calvin, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, envisions constructing a massive 137-meter nickel-and-bronze statue of Prometheus on Alcatraz Island, surpassing the Statue of Liberty in height at a cost of approximately $450 million. The project requires reclassification of the island by Donald Trump, whom Calvin expects to support it given Trump's focus on aesthetics and symbolism. This initiative reflects a larger pattern where Trump and tech leaders are reshaping Western cultural identity through monumental projects. Trump has simultaneously approved a National Garden of American Heroes featuring 250 statues for $34 million and is constructing a gilded ballroom at the White House. These efforts demonstrate how tech company owners have shifted ideologically toward Trumpism, collectively rejecting modernity as a cultural identity and instead promoting their own vision of Western values through grand symbolic monuments.

Read at english.elpais.com