BBC News
June 15, 2012
Athens, a street below the Acropolis: the old man in front of me stops in mid-stride to read a leaflet, which has been trodden into the pavement at his feet. He doesn't bend, but squints at it for a very long time.
From a balcony an old lady and an even older lady express their views on the motorcycle parking skills of a young woman with a spiky hairdo.
Iced coffee is served. Petty rivalries between coffee waitresses are played out at the cash till.
Here at the foot of the Acropolis you are reminded that human beings do remarkably similar things from one historical epoch to the next. People in Shakespeare behave in much the same way as they behave in Aristophanes, and in the Wire.
They form elites. They launch overweening projects fuelled by the perception of unchallengeable power. They stride around proclaiming a project's permanence, oblivious to the shadow of catastrophe that looms behind them.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment