Being interested in history for a good deal of my life, while going through the ideas of ruin that we have came to see throughout class, I started to relate ruin to the deliberate ruin that has occurred within human history. During class we have related ruin to the ideas and the virtues of mostly women and how they are interpreted in the past and the present. What I want to focus on is this idea of ruin placed in a larger scheme.
We have seen the changes of different cultures and societies in the past due to revolution and peaceful democracy, but we have also seen the imposition of foreign forces hungry for power on an area. With these forces, we see the destruction of people along with the destruction of property, held by the state and the people themselves. With this destruction we lose ideas, theories, beliefs, and many more aspects of culture that are no longer capable of being shared through written documents. These aspects have to rely on the word of mouth in order to be passed along, generation to generation. Examples of these being:
The destruction of Warsaw, which was the destruction of this area by the Germans during World War II. Being able to use this town as an example for societies that attempted to rebel against the German government, they destroyed buildings, and planned to level the city to attempt to build a more “Germanised” city.
All the way back to 392 AD at the Library of Serapeum which was burnt and looted by Theophilus of Alexandria, which was ordered by the king at that time.
Our world has a history of ruin, and it can come in many different forms. Whether it be ruin of virtue, property, or any means.
– Kelsey Lawson
