The Mesopotamians built the earliest pyramidal structures, constructed of sun-dried mud-brick. Sun-dried mud-brick was the most common construction material employed in ancient Egypt during pharaonic times and was made in pretty much the same way for millennia. People mixed sand, chopped straw, or other binders such as animal dung with mud to increase its durability and plasticity.
The brick-shaped image I'm showing comes from web page sections called "Leadership Window" on government websites across China, where the government publishes ID photos of local government officials. The background color of these portraits is mainly blue. But in some other areas, the color is red. And white is the standard color in the police system. It seems that there is no absolute standard to regulate these photos. The ID photos of officials in different regions are different. Some officials will be photographed in suits, and some will wear casual clothes.
"Revolutionary soldiers are bricks, move them wherever they need them" this is an old saying in the Chinese army. Squad leaders have constantly reminded me throughout my military career to have this awareness. Political education is regularly carried out in the Chinese military because leaders think it can improve the "Party Spirit" of soldiers. "Party Spirit" is a special spiritual quality. In the official description, it is a spiritual force that can unite people's hearts and improve potential. It is a glorious quality that can sacrifice oneself for the highest interests of the collective. "Party Spirit" acts as a glue in the whole power building, tightly combining all the materials of different components.
After serving in the PLA, I returned to the university in Shanghai to continue my studies. I experienced the epidemic closure of Shanghai in April 2022 and witnessed various humanitarian disasters caused by the chaotic management of government departments. Every official is in his post, and every department is running, but no one chooses between fulfilling his duties to the system and fulfilling his responsibilities to the people. So I began to reflect on such a numb and mechanical system and observed the alienation of "people" into "bricks" after entering the system.
When countless patients in need of first aid were unable to be sent to the hospital, and when the officials were almost frantically controlling speech, I opened the official website of the Shanghai Municipal Government and stared at the ID photos of officials displayed in the "Leadership Window." They are like NPCs bound by the game's rules; I don't see any human appearances in their portraits. Each regular rectangular ID photo is so "brick." To present their alienation, I use the concept of "decentralization" of blockchain NFT works to strip them from their original positions and observe what these "bricks" look like after they separate from the collective. Undoubtedly, their appearance was forever changed by the glue called "Party Spirit."