The Enemy's Arch?
Is there such a thing?
Not really. There are only friendly arches. They all inspire and delight. They invite light in and allow interior space to expand, along with our imagination. It's hard to think of a negative thing ever brought about by an arch.
The enemy of the arch is someone who doesn't care as much about making them as smashing them or throwing stones at them, or pointing out their weaknesses and deriding the people who build them.
And the enemy's arch, if he tries to make one himself is more of an 'anti-arch'. It is a disconnect of unfinished ideas and projects, half truths and postured misinformation. Usually the span of development is stunted, compromised, narrow, and often halted altogether.
Proper arches are structural and supportive and usually last a heck of a long time, unless they are purposely destroyed. There's a history of thousands of broken arch-laden castles out there in the world and most of them didn't fall down on their own. They succumbed mostly to aggressive, mean spirited, unreasonable, anti-social, 'anti-arch' activity.
The people who built the lofty vaulted strongholds of history, the towering castles with arched openings (and even arched bridges) thought these structures would keep them safe from harm.
But it didnt take long for the enemy to come along, determined to turn everything to ruins, the ghostly silhouettes of which are now a testament to the pointlessness of war. The lonely arches that are left standing are a poignant reminder that the enemy of the arch (and all that is beautiful and magical) has become nameless and insignificant, while the beauty of the true arch, however diminished, lives on.
