I chose the 46:00 minute mark of Chariot of the Gods because, for all that I hate the narration, the image itself is haunting. A person, nearly naked, stands dwarfed by ancient stone walls. (The movie says they are thousands of years old — try hundreds.) It’s such a melancholic moment.

I used to try to imagine what that would be like, to live among ruins that your culture no longer knew how to build. By extension, if our civilization were to collapse, what it would feel like to be our descendants, living among the ruins of skyscrapers.

It took me awhile to work out that we already know the answer. We’re doing it right now. Humans already live among the ruins of grand ancient civilizations and it doesn’t bother us. They’re tourist destinations.

photo credit: al_green

We aren’t particularly bothered that we don’t know how to build the Pyramids or Stone Henge, because we aren’t particularly interested in building more of them. The projects now seem like somewhat baffling wastes of time. We look on their works. We do not despair.