An architecturally ugly neighborhood becomes part of a feedback loop of blight and violence; the sleazy, dehumanized housing projects of urban ghettos manifest their weak power patterns as a matrix of squalor and crime—although it must be remembered that depending on which attractor pattern one aligns with, the destitution of the ghetto can be an excuse for depravity or the inspiration to rise above it. (It is not the facts of one’s environment, but one’s attitude toward them, that determines whether they will be the occasion for defeat or the inspiration to victory.)
