More thoughts on Greece

Athens is about the past, our past, all of us. Were it not for the antiquities there would be little reason for anyone to go there, unless for a business deal or something government related. Along with Mexico City, it's one of the ugliest places I have been. Graffitti is everywhere. Not surprising in a big city, but there's no sign that any effort has been made to hide it, no paintovers, etc. It's as though the city ran out of paper and pens and communicates with spraypaint. No evidence the city cares or is even aware. What an eyesore.


So, the city thrives on the packaging and marketing of the past. A lot could be written about how the constructors of the Parthenon were creating a structure that would feed and employ Greeks for centuries, from the tourguides to the little shops that sell Parthenon kitchen magnets. If a city today wants to thrive in the future all it has to do is hire great architects, stay intact for a thousand years, and the tourists of the future will keep your distant offspring employed for the following thousand.
The antiquities are everywhere. So many that I saw a junkpile behind a museum with random rubble, ancient pedestals, arms, legs, with no place to go. The refuse of ancient Greece has yet to be cleaned up.
Athens does give one a different view of time. In my country any building older than 200 years is deserving of museum status. But, it's not really old, just older than most of the other stuff around us. We have no buildings that predate the printing press, gunpowder, eyeglasses, or even the microscope.

Athens reminded me that despite all our claims of progress, we are still the same as this ancient folk in many ways. We trade with other peoples. We marry. We pass on what we've learned to our children. We try and leave marks in the world that people will remember us by. We worship many gods, all false, save one. We build large buildings as monuments to our society. We like to think that we'll be remembered here, but eventually all of us are forgotten. What matters is not if we are known in this world, but whether we are known in the next, and by the architect of both.