Destroy history and you destroy humanity

It was pretty alarming to read that ISIS destroyed the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria, and killed an archaeologist who had looked after it for 40 years. To be honest, I had never heard of the ancient city of Palmyra. I didn’t know that the Temple of Bel was almost 2000 years old and dedicated to a Mesopotamian god. It withstood the Roman empire, conversions to Christianity and later to Islam.

But now that I do… it’s genuinely upsetting. This area was along the Silk Road and its history seems to be an example of different cultures vying for power and somehow living together as well. Most cultures don’t exist in a vacuum. Things definitely have to change. If you live in the United States particularly, our cities are a testament to changing times, but we need cities like Palmyra to continue existing.

In “The Monuments Men“, Frank Stokes a.k.a George Clooney, says this:

“You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they’ll still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it’s as if they never existed.”

The movie was about a group of art experts who were enlisted by the U.S. army to find and preserve art that Hitler was destroying as he blasted through Europe. It wasn’t the best movie, but I really loved this speech. Art represents culture. Sometimes it’s both history and progress. Without it, we would not be the same world despite all of our wonderful scientific and technological achievements.

ISIS is not unique in what they did. There’s a reason that dictators burn books. It’s to erase ideas and attempt to rewrite the past. Aren’t we better as people if we learn from the past rather than destroy it? Aren’t we better people if we CHOOSE to do something and learn it ourselves, instead of being forced into it?

Why do people prefer to study classics and history instead of technology? There is something in human nature that’s guided towards it. I think we need both progress and history, art and technology. We need both for the human race to survive.

I don’t know what the solution is to a problem as big as ISIS (and other groups who want to destroy the world). Obviously I have more questions than answers, but this is a reminder that there are people in this world who risk their lives to protect even a seemingly small part of our humanity.

Let’s remember the people — like archaelogist Khaled al-Asaad — who have.