In the Critique of Judgment, Kant argued that people who pass negative, critical judgments ethical or political, about things like baroque palaces are making a fundamental category mistake. While this idea is in tension with the notion that the beautiful represents a symbol of morality, there’s also the argument that an aesthetic judgment re: beauty or sublimity remains independent or indifferent to extra-aesthetic considerations. In this case, I think Kant should have concurred that “the Vortex” at the New York State Fair was, indeed, “awesome.” The long swing of the main shaft is both violent and regular in the circles drawn by it. Strapped in for dear life, the riders remain, for all that, quite safe as they are hurtled through space.