<P> It is not the rleigious symbolism that offends me -- it is the fact that only the exercise of raw power made the people spend their entire lives building a cathedral and getting NOTHING for it. Talk about exploitation. In truth, I am very conflicted when I marvel at the CHicago skyline for much of the same reason, though the exploitation of American capitalism is less brutal than feudal Europe..
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<P> <B><I>Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol@jhu.edu></I></B> wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">At 01:52 PM 5/31/2002 -0700, eric wrote:<BR><BR>>Europhiles forgive me on this, but everytime I hear about how charming or <BR>>breath taking cathedrals and the like are in Europe I wanna gag. Talk <BR>>about built on the backs of the peasants! We have that hear in the U.S. <BR>>-- we (all of us) cannot turn our backs on our collective history which <BR>>includes slavery.<BR><BR><BR>Too bad you cannot appreciate these material fruits of human labor - which <BR>is the mistake that religious zealots from stalinists to taliban made: they <BR>saw only religious symbols and did not see the products of human hands and <BR>minds. I love the cathedrals, they are exquisite material products created <BR>by architects and workers - but I do not give a shit about religious <BR>symbolism they evoke in some.<BR><BR>wojtek<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><p><br><hr size=1><b>Do You Yahoo!?</b><br>
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