All that is solid melts into air

"All that is solid melts into air" is a quote from the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx. It is an evocative sentence, intended to show one of the effects of bourgeois 'progress'. To put it in context would entail quoting the whole manifesto. I shall just link to it here. The quote was used as the title of a book by Marshall Berman (Reissued 2010, many links and reviews online) which examines the impact of modernity. I didn't get a lot out of it, but the idea still resonates.

One aspect of life to which it is quite appropriate is the rapid obsolescence of material products. New models of our favourite things, cars and communication devices, appear regularly. The face of cities changes as buildings are demolished and replaced with increasing frequency. There is a feeling of evanescence, impermanence. Those older parts that are retained often take on the appearance of a spectacle. In many cases they are preserved as such, as special areas, and industrial buildings converted to residential use.

On a personal level, something like melting into air happens moment by moment. The body feels solid and persistent, but experience constantly fades away leaving only traces of memory. In the long run, of course, we are all dead, the ultimate melting into air.