Murray Moss: 'We must stop the erosion of our 250-year-old American culture'

As part of the August 2025 ‘Made in America’ issue of Wallpaper* we tasked three powerful voices from the worlds of design, fashion and architecture – Murray Moss, Willy Chavarria and Florencia Rodriguez – with delivering their own state of the nation address, speaking on themes of creativity and community in turbulent times. Here, Murray Moss – warns of cultural trauma in an authoritarian state.

'Culture is defined as the shared beliefs, values, behaviour and norms that bind a group of people together. It is a complex system of learned and transmitted ways of life and the ensuing relationships, encompassing shared attitudes towards literature and art, social structures and material objects, and, of course, politics.

Culture is a very swarm-like phenomena, and regardless of which particular culture you belong to, any attempt to deviate from it or to go against its tenets once it has gathered enough steam, or to control it and direct its course towards one’s own agenda, does not require (at least not at first) a large group of people, but rather a Machiavellian mindset and the will and skill to use it. Culture can fall into bad hands skilled enough to control and direct its course until a critical mass of people form a tipping point and rewrite portions, or all, of the culture.

My point is that culture – even one that appears solid in spite of being inconceivably vulnerable, and which binds us through shared beliefs and values – can be replaced more easily than imagined, and weaponised if necessary against those who are out of step.

This is what is happening in the United States right now. This is why our current government is attacking everything that has, until very recently, defined America, including our universities, our legal system, art, science, diplomacy, empathy, decency. Our allies have become our enemies, and vice versa. The establishment of tariffs followed by endless reversals and the ensuing chaos has become the norm. Winning is paramount. Trump is attacking our cultural creativity, taking over the Kennedy Center and assuming what is good and what is bad performance art. Signing yet more executive orders to stop funding the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Like a true oligarch, Trump wants military parades in the street in his honour, and a vulgar layer of gold paint over nearly every surface of the Oval Office to serve as a proper royal backdrop.

A new Trumpian culture – based on lies, chaos, flip-flop decisions, open defiance of the rule of law, and the tearing down of the distinct branches of government that have always served as the guard dogs necessary in a democracy – has been weaponised. In just five months. Trump to world: ‘Get out of my way!’

I recently watched a documentary, Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hated, which follows the growing swarm, and for me is a perfect example of how members of the cultural right completely reversed the city of Berlin from a city of tolerance into a city of extreme intolerance, threatening, arresting, endangering and eventually killing those who dared to express opposition. Prior to Nazi Germany, Berlin was widely considered the ‘queer capital’ of the world. During the 1920s, the city was a haven for LGBTQ individuals, offering a degree of openness and tolerance not found elsewhere at the time, and it boasted numerous clubs, bars and cabarets, attracting people from all over the world.

Between 1913-1933, Berlin was also the location of the Institute of Sexual Science, the world’s first sexology research centre. Set up by Magnus Hirschfeld, the institute pioneered research and treatment for various matters regarding gender and sexuality, including gay and transgender topics.

After the Nazis gained control of Germany in the 1930s, the institute and its valuable research libraries were destroyed as part of a government censorship programme. A new Nazi culture brutally turned against any and all sexual behaviour deemed deviant.

The Nazi Party’s ultimate aim was to seize power through Germany’s parliamentary system, install Hitler as dictator, and create a community of racially pure Germans loyal to their führer, who would lead them in a campaign of racial cleansing. Trump aims to do similar through his election as president, as well as through Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. When asked recently on NBC News’ Meet the Press if he must uphold the Constitution, Trump replied ‘I don’t know’. He has also promised to expel all immigrants, whom he deems criminals and tells us they are eating our pets, and he incredulously threatens other sovereign nations like Canada, which he declares the US will annex in order to Make America Great Again.

So what can we do? How can we fight off this siege against our democratic America? This was the assignment given to me and others by Wallpaper*, inviting each of us to identify ways in which ‘rebellion, activism, resilience are of foundational importance to the evolving endurance of the creative sector’.

There are many actions we can take, and have taken, since Trump’s inauguration. But as I’ve described earlier, we must stop the erosion of our 250-year-old American culture as the Nazi Party instigated the erosion of German culture as seen in Berlin. We need to create a reversal of that tipping point.

The odds of success can seem slim, since nearly half of all Americans voted for Trump last November, while, in the 1920s, the Nazi Party was still a fringe group of extremists with little or no political power, receiving only 2.6 per cent of the vote in the Reichstag election of 1928. Protest is our only weapon. Protest at every level. No matter how small or large, we must be seen as taking to the streets across the nation. We need to build our mass visibly. Republicans need to feel the heat in the upcoming elections if they continue to keep stupidly silent. They need to get voted out of Congress.

This has already begun, of course, but only recently has it increased in volume. The LA Times reported, ‘Protestors have quickened the outrage metabolism among members of Congress, encouraged disruptive tactics and largely ended the debate over whether Democrats should work with Trump on occasion rather than universally oppose him.’ A director for political advocacy group MoveOn commented that it feels as if grassroots energy has exploded like a volcano. Trump has become a common enemy for many different liberal and progressive groups who are now working together. Again, we are getting closer to the tipping point.

The worldwide economic depression of 1929 contributed to the German demand for change. In our case, even talk of recession due to Trump’s tariff war caused panic and chaos, as well as a lack of belief in his ‘deal-making’ tactics; the markets – nearly all of them – plunged. But rebellion, activism, resilience are the only ways to positively reverse this dire change from our true values as written clearly by our founding fathers in the Constitution. So, what do we do? We need to create a new swarm.' mossbureau.com, @murray_moss