Serious Thread #3: Are you glad the pyramids were built?

I'm perfectly all right with the pyramids. I didn't build them. Obliquely, how the hell are you supposed to complain about the lack of social enlightenment in civilizations that disappeared millenia ago without appearing to be an attention-hungry left-revisionist prat?

Millar - I like your style but err.. what is wrong with being a left-revisionist prat? The Easter Island example is indeed maybe a better one.

Sometimes I think I wouldn't care if every beautiful building and piece of art was destroyed. It's all going to disappear one day anyway, so what does it matter?

The one thing you can sort of say for Easter Island is that their process seemed more inspired by a collective mistake than by a top-down one; i.e. it was a big cultural disaster, whereas I get the sense with Egypt that a lot more direction and coersion was necessary.

All of that having been said, I am fascinated by ancient architecture and sculpture and so forth, regardless of whether it was built for religious reasons, as graves, or whatever. I find it absolutely amazing to see what are considered to be "primative" people creating maginificent items that have lasted to this day. And I have even more admiration for the advancement of their cultures because we're so limited in our thinking that we cannot conceive how some of these architectural masterpieces were created.

Also, in reference to Millar's comment about people looking at this century's architecture 500 years from now and commenting about the labor caste and so-forth - what, realistically, is going to be standing, 500 years from now? And what state will it be in? Do we currently build thinking about bringing something into being permanently, or do we think of all buildings as being transient?

And, on a more personal note, I think I have finally decided that I want to see Angor Wat more than any other architectural structure.

J0hn - I've heard the same, but don't know how paranoid I am at this minute.

Here's a great picture of it. Imagine the blue skies replaced with some blood-red armageddon sunset and the entire structure lit with numerous bonfires and torches. Eeeeevil.

Angkor Wat = looks like people were probably tortured by demons living inside at some point, therefore totally cool place to visit

Also if you have a secret you can tell it to the walls there and they will keep it forever (see In The Mood For Love)

My S/O spent two months in the heart of Mexico at some recently discovered pyramid (wish I could recall the name of the site, but I'm drawing a blank). The whole thing sounded so remote and romantic - kind of like a dirties Indiana Jones adventure. He said that it was surreal to climb to the top of a pyramid, be looking around at the surrounding jungle, and then looking down at the lap-top he'd hauled-up to the top, with the cables running down the steep steps.

Who can say for sure that the pyramids were built by cruelly overworked slaves? From what I've read, they were built by the occult powers of sound.

Accepting for the moment the high probability that pyramids were built by slave labour, we are talking about a symptom rather than the disease. That is to say, losing the pyramids (or parallel projects in other cultures) doesn't abolish slavery. If the question is recast to something like "Would you trade away the history of slavery throughout the world, bearing in mind that you also lose the pyramids and many other great artefacts?" I'd probably say yes.

The millenium dome was built at a huge cost to the British taxpayer.It is now disused,three years after its construction.And I bet it wont last past 2010.

Big up the pyramids!

Yes, please.

So the answer is - no, I'm not glad they were built; yes, I'm glad they now exist.

i bet Dubya does....or perhaps just move them to Vegas

And, yes, I'm glad they were built. Where else would I go on my summer holidays?

On a totally different note, one of my all-time favorite descriptions (from "Tulipmania") dealt with a Turish sultan's (I think) party, where there were tortoises wandering around in flower beds filled with flowering tulips, with candles on their (the tortoises,not the flower - I need to be more careful about my grammar)backs, to the flowers were "underlit" by moving lights and the image was ever-changing (I do feel badly for the tortoises, though, being a tortoise lover and all - I imagine that the candles must have been permanently [somehow] affized to their shells, and that cannot be too healthy for the critters).

however, according to casual conversation, working on pyramid building was a pretty handy number in ancient egypt. It was a job for life, and the bosses made sure the workers were fed enough to be able to do the job. The whips were just for show. Allegedly there are loads of ancient egyptian records about peasants running away to become slaves on the pyramids.

dirty vicar do you drink with the MUMMY?

Speaking of which, standing on the top of those pyramids and surveying the surrounding jungle and other ruins is about the coolest thing ever, especially at night. Really, any situation where you're playing with old ghosts is good.

How about being a slave for years, then when you are incapable of working properly, you get sacrificed? (I have no idea if that happened.)