Last night, I saw the Nova episode about putting the Acropolis back together. It’s fascinating in many ways. The construction techniques are lost and being rediscovered. New stones from the same 2500+ yr quarry are being used to fill in the lost or damaged portions.
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What I found most interesting is the history of the building. It was completed in 8-9 years. Then black plague struck the city. And Spartans invaded ~1 yr after it was completed and turned it into an army barracks. In the many years since it’s construction, very few have been spent on the religious purpose for which it was intended.
And yet this is the building which many of our modern institutions look to for their design in an attempt to recapture something of that suffrageless, limited democratic era. Banks, courthouses, legislature, and monument buildings copy the design.
I see this as a significant problem in our society. The image or symbol of the Acropolis is far more outstanding than the building’s history and use. We carry this pattern into many interactions.
Other people are archetypes to the typical person. They are a symbol related to a role to be played; mother, wife, tomboy, teacher, hag, Moses, martyr, old maid, etc.
It is this preference for symbology over reality that is a significant problem. When we can see each other for what we really are the world will remake itself before our eyes. The change would be everywhere; concepts, institutions, people, and buildings…
Haven’t we grown up enough that symbols aren’t necessary? Don’t they just get in the way?
The Acropolis is a beautifully assembled pile of rocks. The concepts it’s supposed to stand for while sounding idealic hides all sorts of flaws which we would not accept today like slavery, paternal voting, and rule by a limited elite. To lookup up to the symbol of the Acropolis as a symbol of democracy is to invite those other aspects as well.
There is another American symbol that also stands for suffrageless democracy and slavery. It’s the confederate flag. How many of those stand on flag poles around government and quasi-government buildings?
We should set out to make the world we want to live in and leave the past attempts in the past where they belong lest we repeat their failures. Look beyond the symbol. Look at the person.