# Afghanistan is Destroying a World Wonder

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-is-destroying-a-world-wonder/56802>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 5, 2001, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-is-destroying-a-world-wonder/56802 "2001-03-05T06:56:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2001, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-is-destroying-a-world-wonder/56802/41 "2001-03-08T00:25:05Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sofa King \*_Remember this time, through the ages. This is when we kicked some serious ass._ \*\*

IIRC, the exact words are “My name is Ozymandias, kind of kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair”

That is not to disagree with Sofa king - I, too see their point, although I also regret their actions. If the statues were like Ozymandias’ and this was a case of today’s tyranny tagging over the monumental graffiti of yesterday’s tyranny, I would be less concerned.

But because the statues are Buddhist, I (an atheist) see it otherwise. Buddhism is the largest religion at whose feet can be laid the least amount of atrocity. Asoka and other Buddhist rules probably destroyed Hindu and Shamanistic relics when they established their kingdom, but these outrages are not remembered as painfully those done by others, including now the Taliban.

BTW, our "religion’ of commerce is not blameless: on the spot where now stands the Trump Tower, wasn’t there an old building with a beautiful Art Deco frieze? Didn’t Donald Trump promise to salvage the frieze, but decided it would be too costly, so one night had it destroyed?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2001, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-is-destroying-a-world-wonder/56802/42 "2001-03-08T01:18:33Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> I met a traveler from an antique land  
> Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone  
> Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,  
> Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,  
> And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command  
> Tell that its sculptor well those passions read  
> Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,  
> The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed.
> 
> And on the pedestal these words appear:  
> “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:  
> Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
> 
> Nothing beside remains. Round the decay  
> Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare  
> The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Percy Bysshe Shelley  
(1818)

'Course, it’s the follies of past tyrranies which are precisely what we _should not_ destroy. We must always remember we are form dust and will return, and all the works of the past fall to nothing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-is-destroying-a-world-wonder/56802/43 "2001-03-09T13:23:21Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by andros \*  
> **Blackclaw** , whatever you say, Sparky. I’m sure the members of the Taliban leadership would be happy to listen to you explain their motives to them. :rolleyes: \*\*

Congradulations. You’ve won a pit thread.

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=62825](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=62825)

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/afghanistan-is-destroying-a-world-wonder/56802.md?page=2)