A feudal lord in the modern world

"Is my deep attachment to tradition the reason why I cannot see the French Revolution's developments as real progress and improvement? The events of 1789 helped dismantle the world's status, bringing the advent of a horrid reign of money and the middle class, with petty shopkeepers' values. The Medici kings had an elevated, grandiose outlook, and although I don't share their authoritarian notion of rule, they indisputably encouraged beauty and preserved the arts...Today's world is an extension of these revolutionary developments. The secular society has forgotten stone, preferring cement and plastic, indestructibly ugly materials and short-lived household goods. It's mankind's tragedy." - Balthus, Vanished Splendors, p. 144.