Life in a Northern Town

I've always had a soft spot for a certain type of bleak, depressing - well you could call it "liminal" style of images and settings.
Like those propaganda photos of life and architecture in the Soviet Union. It's a kind of absolute grimness, beyond the hope of hope itself. The bleakness of mundane life, as praised by left-wing politicians.
Why is this all so bad?
Because it can't go on forever, of course.
Stasis is actually decay.

A distorted version of this is also a Scientology law. If you're not getting richer, you're getting worse...