SYB_DC
Winger
He said any of us humans . That includes all of us , and all our children. You said you can understand it, but it doesn't seem as nice when your own family are mentioned. This is why i don't agree with his statement. I'll just leave you to the thread now, and you can carry on licking his hoop
I think my subsequent posts have made clear what I meant. I find your point of view understandable but ultimately far more individualistic than my own values. The strangest bit about all this is why you seem insistent upon making your disagreements personal.
Good post.
My argument is that as a species, we have to continue to progress. Hence, your second paragraph is particuarly interesting. If we have made advances in construction and technology, but haven't actually been able to build anything as a species to surpass it, then we haven't progressed and we can't truly say we've advanced in any meaningful sense. We're stagnant, and standing in thrall of old monuments such as Notre Dame - as beautiful as they were. Old building and monuments collapsing, or being destroyed by whatever means is the natural order of things. The goal always has to be build something better. Or else, what's the f***ing point? Existential, indeed.
In many respects, we've moved past "better," and replaced it with shortcuts in order to save money or time, both frequently to the benefit of individuals rather than society. That's one of the reasons seeing this is so sad.
Now there is a lot to unpack in terms of how a giant edifice built to the glory of the version of the Catholic church that existed nine centuries ago has metamorphosed into the cultural icon (not an accidental term) that it has become today, but @sonson's excellent post covered most of that.