After visiting Europe this past summer, I became haunted by the question of what our era will leave behind. Europe has a lot of history: stone buildings, statues and artwork, literature and record books. America has lots of beautiful natural features, but little lasts that is manmade. At the time, I assumed this was because westerners had only come to America a few centuries ago. I thought there hadn't been time to build up a lot of history.
McLoughlin has insight to offer on this topic. The trail goes cold at the industrial revolution. Of all the sights that I saw in London and Paris, only Sacre Cour (surely misspelled) and the Eiffel tower were built between 1700 and 1950. Since 1700, cheap, disposable structures have prevailed on both sides of the Atlantic. The concept of building a cathedral that will not be finished for several generations befuddles our modern brains. This cultural short-sightedness is a source of efficiency and wealth, but also of climate change and pollution.
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