“Reward Hacking at the 1937 World’s Fair” by frmsaul

About this episode

The episode discusses the competitive dynamics of the 1937 World's Fair, focusing on the Soviet and Nazi pavilions as symbols of political ideologies.

The "Paris 1937 World's Fair" was a dick measuring contest. At the time, the world was on the verge of the worst war in history. The fair was an opportunity for powers to flex and intimidate each other. Who has more industrial might, more sophisticated engineering and better science? How do you measure that? Different countries were assigned different areas of the fair and were given freedom to build a “Pavilion”, basically a museum of how cool the country is. It was an important public relations opportunity to showcase your power. What is better, communism or fascism? Obviously, it's whoever can build a cooler pavilion, and whoever has a better pavilion is going to win the upcoming war! Soviet pavilion on the right, Nazi pavilion on the left The organizers placed the Soviet and Nazi pavilions right in front of each other, and it created a very competitive dynamic. The Russians built a giant modernist building from stainless steel with a statue-of-liberty-sized sculpture of two members of the proletariat. The Nazis built a modern replica of an imperial Roman building, beautifully ornamented, with statues of jacked Aryan Übermensches flexing. The Nazis even sent their spies to…

People in this episode

Guest: frmsaul

Topics covered

• World's Fair
• historical competition
• political propaganda
• architecture
• Soviet Union
• Nazi Germany

Keywords

• World's Fair
• Soviet pavilion
• Nazi pavilion
• political competition
• architecture
• 1937
• propaganda

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Soviet, Nazi

Places: Roman

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