Sinking Zone

I was dismayed to hear about the cruise-ship that sank (partially) off the Greek island of Santorini. As sorry as I am for the passengers aboard, I am actually pleased that the incident happened in this particular location.

Santorini is not the world's most popular tourist stop, but it is one of the last remaining repositories of artifacts from the ancient Minoan culture...perhaps the most advanced Bronze-Age civilization known to humankind.

My thinking is that the accident will help preserve what remains of the Minoan artifacts on Santorini, because it is likely to reduce the tourist traffic that is historically the greatest threat to the archaeological value of Santorini in the understanding of the ORIGINS OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS.

This is no small matter, in my eyes.

At present the whole of humanity seems divided on the value of HUMAN LIFE ITSELF.

Before you react, allow me to explain.

Regardless of one's religious beliefs and/or scientific background...it is widely understood that humankind is a unique feature in this corner of the universe. The artifacts on Santorini represent some of the oldest clues remaining about how CONSCIOUS THOUGHT progressed from the purely INSTINCTIVE to the beginnings of ADVANCED COGNITION (i.e., the sort of thinking that led to the technological advances that have allowed mankind to dominate Planet Earth.)

While I respect the need for commerce for the island's contemporary inhabitants, I also recognize the stress that unresolved understanding of the extreme rarity of conscious thought in this part of the universe places upon the whole of humanity.

Just as the average person would not easily succumb to building a highway over Grandma's grave, so I can see that the continued exploitation of Santorini for the sake of tourism is likely to agitate the deepest of human sensitivities about the beginnings of our own consciousness.

So, whereas I am dismayed at any individual loss this incident may have incurred, I think the potential benefit to the greater good for HUMANKIND is incalculable.

--mattergy

Author's Addendum: I was also opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq because I feared what would become of the Akkadian, Sumerian and Persian artifacts (many of which are still undiscovered) that have been in the Tigris-Euphrates valley for thousands of years. But the devastation of Ancient artifacts is just a fact of human arrogance, so it is unlikely that humanity will EVER be able to responsibly manage its own history (without divine guidance).

Author's Addendum#2: I realize that there are Egyptian, Assyrian, African, Chinese, Indian, Inuit, and Polynesian Bronze-Age sites of equivalent historical value that demand protective attention, but in terms of cultural "fragility", the late-neolithic Akkadian, Sumerian and Persian artifacts are probably the most vulnerable to wholesale destruction at the present time.

Author's Addendum#3: Lest my concern for "lifeless artifacts" be misconstrued as elevating their value above the PEOPLE living in these regions, let it be understood that I'm fairly certain that history need not be destroyed in the process of protecting human life...but since both commodities are chronically undervalued, I suspect that the destruction both of history AND human life are considered as equally inconsequential by an overwhelmingly destructive minority of over-zealous minds.