The Notre Dame Fire Is Such A Tragedy For All Of Humanity
The fire that devastated Notre Dame in Paris is so heartbreaking. What makes Notre Dame so special is that it is almost seen as an eternal presence in the collective mind of all of us. I love history and art, and I’ve visited Notre Dame before. Even for those who are not very familiar with Notre Dame seem to be immediately aware of its power and status as a becon of hope and achievement.
The only ray of hope is that many of the relics and artwork were saved and much of the foundation is still intact.
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I pray the damage is minimal. It is a treasure.
From local reports half of the building is now engulfed in flames. Very sad day indeed, savour looks very unlikely now.
A tragedy for humanity is, that until today there are 25'000 humans dying daily of hunger and thirst... Notre Dame is a building who does nothing for humanity!
People dying of hunger is terrible. The number of people who die from preventable diseases is also terrible.
I’m not comparing a fire to people dying. The reason the fire is tragic is because it’s hard for people to accept that all things must pass. People are comforted by the illusion that some things(like Notre Dame, the pyramids, Great Wall of china etc...) will last forever. It represents a connection throughout generations. Although it is not comparable to human death, the collective memory of hundreds of years of history burning is a jarring symbol of the uncertainty in life.
Symbolism is what our culture is based upon, and Notre Dame is a very powerful symbol. Therefore it self evidently ‘does something’ for humanity.
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Thank you for your response. With all my respect I would like to add:
So when the culture, based on symbolism, can't solve the hunger and thirst of humanity... it is to replace with something completely new.
The powerful symbol of notre dame you talking about is coming from a deep conditioning of human behavior... the conditioning from church or it's "kings" telling whats good and whats bad, by doing lots of bad may I add.
In my opinion, when you say "it self evidently does something" you just follow this conditioning without questioning the reason. And the parenthesis on does something shows that quite obvious...
I heard these points all my life, still I never can or will understand why the masses act like this. It is so unnatural and only proof of the fact that most of humanity have lost their proper connection with life itself.
I understand your point. I share it to an extent but I see things from a very long historical perspective. Clearly institutions are created to control people and make a functioning society. The fact that institutions such as religion, the state, monarchies etc... do bad (and in some cases lots of bad) doesn’t mean that they are not what society is based upon.
People in the western world have certain shared cultural ideas that have taken thousands of years and millions of deaths to achieve. These include ending slavery, modern medicine, women’s equality, charity towards strangers and democracy. It’s simple to throw the baby out with the bath water and claim how negative these things are. Without these institutions(of which places like Notre Dame symbolize) there would be anarchy.
Western culture is being thrown away and that is very alarming and sad to me. It has given more people a higher quality of life than ever in history. We are so quick to condemn what has made the world great. (Although far from perfect.)
People blindly following things and not thinking for themselves is a huge problem. Thinking for yourself is sacred to us all. The major irony is that western civilization is based on Socrates questioning everything. Greek philosophy mixed with Jesus’ message of treating everyone with respect is the core of free thinking.
The fact that institutions are corrupt is sadly inevitable, but the underlying freedom that we have is something to fight for.
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Why must I accept to be violated everyday, just to get the underlying freedom, and only when I fight for? Respecting life is the core of free thinking, so why are cultures not respecting life? Isn't western "civilization" the source of all the evil like, crusading, colonization, slavery etc.?
Freedom is never free and must always be fought for. That’s the point. The world is far from perfect and western civilization has huge problems. I could go on for days and days about how terrible western civilization is. Here’s the ray of hope: life in the western world is as good as life has ever been in the history of the planet for the greatest number of people.
Crusading(religious wars of any kind), slavery and colonialism all predate European culture by literally thousands of years. They all still go on in other parts of the world. I’m so frustrated with people dissing western culture and never acknowledging the fact that it’s also the basis for the vast majority of all of the great breakthroughs over the last 500 years. (That’s not in any disrespect to other cultures, it’s just a fact.)