If there has been no error in your calculations, the result should satisfy you. We need to flood the market even if for the moment merely the intellectual market with a mass of desires whose fulfillment is not beyond the capacity of humanity s present means of action on the material world, but only beyond the capacity of the old social organisation. It is thus not without political interest to publicly counterpose such desires to the elementary desires that are endlessly rehashed by the film industry and in psychological novels like those of that old hack Mauriac. The revolutionary transformation of the world, of all aspects of the world, will confirm all the dreams of abundance. In any case they are never envisaged as depending on causes that can be uncovered by careful analysis and turned to account.
People are quite aware that some neighborhoods are gloomy and others pleasant.
But they generally simply assume that elegant streets cause a feeling of satisfaction and that poor streets are depressing, and let it go at that. In fact, the variety of possible combinations of ambiances, analogous to the blending of pure chemicals in an infinite number of mixtures, gives rise to feelings as differentiated and complex as any other form of spectacle can evoke. The slightest demystified investigation reveals that the qualitatively or quantitatively different influences of diverse urban decors cannot be determined solely on the basis of the historical period or architectural style, much less on the basis of housing conditions. The research that we are thus led to undertake on the arrangement of the elements of the urban setting, in close relation with the sensations they provoke, entails bold hypotheses that must be constantly corrected in the light of experience, by critique and self-critique. Disquieting neighborhoods of arcades could one day carry on and fulfill the allure of these works.