I spent the last two weeks in and around Florence (the city, not the singer), which, as my readers know, has a strong claim to be the capital of Renaissance art. Within just a few minutes, you can walk to countless monumental buildings containing spectacular, groundbreaking art. It was inspiring in 1450, and it still is today.
We don’t build monuments; the closest analogy is sports stadiums which typically have a useful life of less than 50 years. We, as a society, have chosen to put our resources into objects that improve the quality of our daily lives–smartphones, flat screen TVs, and the like. It is a comfortable, but disposable, culture.
For what, then, will the people of 500 years from now remember us? Facebook? “Game of Thrones?” Climate change? Donald Trump?