In his Taki Mag, Taki Theodoracopulos explains what’s gone wrong with the Hamptons, writing:
SOUTHAMPTON, L.I.—They’ve honed the skill of attracting attention by building some of the largest and ugliest houses this side of the Russian-owned Riviera ones, yet the luminous little village still retains signs of a bygone civilized era. A few grand houses built a long time ago are proof that not all Americans are nouveaux riches, and some even have good taste in decoration—you know the kind, with wicker chairs, yellow and white umbrellas, and long green lawns. I used to own a house like that, with a swimming pool, tennis court, and cellar full of wine, but sold it because of its proximity to a relative of mine. My daughter was heartbroken at the sale, especially after I bought a large piece of land in northern Connecticut and made plans to build a Yankee palace. She moved to England, and her mother, brother, and reluctant father followed.
As everyone who has not built a glass atrocity on Dune Road knows, artists and writers descended on the land now called the Hamptons around the late 1800s. When people like Walt Whitman praised the place as magical, the rich burst in like gangbusters. The rich back then copied their betters, and their good taste in building their summer “cottages” is evident today. The recent dot-com crowd, alas, believed only in themselves, and ended up constructing monster houses that would scare away Frankenstein. Their imprimatur will one day be seen as proof of why AI decided to do away with humanity.
Never mind. The coup de grâce of the Hamptons took place some time ago, when Paris Hilton, Puff Daddy, Busta Rhymes, Gwyneth Paltrow, and other such rich undesirables (to me, anyway) discovered the place. I now visit once a year, stay at my private club, and rush back to the city after two nights. Even the club has changed, with many famous old WASP names gone to a higher-ranked club above. The only person I knew at breakfast was the president, who came over to say hi and who was asked by a rude me who the hell were all these new members.
Read more here.
If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for my free weekly email.