Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Tace

(6,800 posts)
Mon Apr 6, 2015, 12:26 PM Apr 2015

April 2015 | James Howard Kunstler


Kingdom Tower. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

James Howard Kunstler -- World News Trust

April 2, 2015

I waited until April 2 because this is no joke.

Behold the proposed new Kingdom Tower for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — at one full kilometer in height, about twice the size of New York’s new Freedom Tower.

The Kingdom Tower comprises 252 floors of mixed market apartments, hotel rooms, and offices. It is an axiom that imperial societies build their greatest monuments just before they collapse, so consider this a portent for the oil empire of Saudi Arabia.

There will always be an Arabia — well something will occupy that desolate region — but it may not be the private domain of the Saud clan much longer, especially as war breaks out across the Middle East and Persia.

more

http://worldnewstrust.com/april-2015-james-howard-kunstler
1 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
April 2015 | James Howard Kunstler (Original Post) Tace Apr 2015 OP
Reminded me of Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandias" KoKo Apr 2015 #1

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
1. Reminded me of Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandias"
Mon Apr 6, 2015, 05:20 PM
Apr 2015

Ozymandias
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

In antiquity, Ozymandias was an alternative name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. Shelley began writing his poem in 1817, soon after the announcement of the British Museum's acquisition of a large fragment of a statue of Ramesses II from the thirteenth-century BC, and some scholars believe that Shelley was inspired by this. The 7.25-ton fragment of the statue's head and torso had been removed in 1816 from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes by the Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823).

It was expected to arrive in London in 1818, but did not arrive until 1821.[5][6] Shelley wrote the poem in friendly competition with his friend and fellow poet Horace Smith (1779–1849) who also wrote a sonnet on the same topic with the very same title. Smith's poem would be first published in The Examiner a few weeks after Shelley's sonnet. Both poems explore the fate of history and the ravages of time—that all prominent figures and the empires they build are impermanent and their legacies fated to decay and oblivion.

"Ozymandias"

A sonnet written by the English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822).

I met a traveller 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."[4]

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Editorials & Other Articles»April 2015 »