We recently discussed the case of a Russian who was arrested for carving his name into the ancient walls of the Colosseum. Now, due to the actions of two California women aged 21 and 25, we must bear the shame of such a despicable act. The women used a coin to carve large letters of J and N into the site. We have also discussed stupid acts, including by Americans, where art has been damaged by accident. However like the graffiti by the Chinese tourist, on the Luxor temple, and the Russian tourist who carved a K on the Colosseum this was an intentional act of thoughtless destruction. He was not a stupid teenager, but a 42-year-old man.
The apology of these two cretins only increased my anger. The pair reportedly said “We apologize for what we did. We regret it, but we did not imagine it was something so serious.” Really, who raised you? The ancient Vandals? How old do you have to be to know that it is disgraceful to deface the walls of one of humanity’s greatest structures?
These women not only carved their initials into the walls but then posed for a selfie. What is amazing is that this structure is overwhelming in its size and history for those of us who have been so fortunate to visit it. Why you would need to see your initials carved into it to truly enjoy the experience is otherworldly. I have no idea how people are raised to look at a magnificent structure like this and want to mark it with graffiti and then record your disgraceful act as something to celebrate.
They have been charged with “aggravated damage on building of historical and artistic interest.” However, like the Russian, they are likely only to be given a fine. They should go to jail. Since decency and humanity appear to have left no impression on these women, a jail stint just might. They should also be identified. If they are going to leave a mark on the Colosseum, the act should leave a mark on their own records not some anonymous notations that shames their fellow countrymen.
As ISIS destroys icons, we are repulsed but we produce California Girls …
Lacking the perspicacity of others on this thread, I have to confess that I have no idea how these two girls were raised. Nor can I discern from their actions the psychological characteristics of their parents. And try as I might, I am unable to determine whether these ladies’ have been influenced by either feminism or the overconsumption of pomegranates. So, I’ll have to defer to you experts on those weighty issues and observe only that their behavior was reprehensible and deserving of punishment.
Considering that the people of Rome have stripped the Colosseum of blocks and metal strapping to be used for their own homes or commercial buildings, I think they really do not have a leg to stand on. The Colosseum is a ruin because of the people of Rome, not because it fell down on its own.
Mike Appleton wrote: “Lacking the perspicacity of others on this thread, I have to confess that I have no idea how these two girls were raised.”
No idea? I have an idea that our public educational system helped raise them.
Here are two great articles that explain the philosophical underpinnings for why our culture is being destroyed by public education:
Why Our Children Don’t Think There Are Moral Facts
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/why-our-children-dont-think-there-are-moral-facts/?mwrsm=Email
Moral Relativism and the Crisis of Contemporary Education
http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/372-moral-relativism-and-the-crisis-of-contemporary-education
Please identify these morons so we can properly shame and humiliate them
Paul
The Christians that were persecuted in the Colosseum were but a drop in the bucket of the events that took place there. They were one of many religions that were equally persecuted for not being Roman, following the Roman ways of worshiping the Roman Pantheon and therefore creating a threat to the status quo.
1,600 years of Christian mythology has usurped the Colosseum and its horrors and made it their own. This is typical of the dominant or victorious entities who write the history that is left to read. The West holds the holocaust as the worst to the worst as it is about the West’s major religion, Christianity and one of the greatest shames of Christianity, the persecution of the Jews. However, if you step back and look at the entire picture of this sort of thing, numbers will astound. The same activity of eradicating those seen as undesirable, offensive, or a threat: 60million Chinese by Mao, 20 million by Stalin, 2 million by Pol Pot. 3 million Germans after WW2 by Eastern Europeans, etc., etc., etc.
One can see this as an affront to religion/Christianity, include feminism, and add in whatever other pet peeve one has. Or one can simply see it as the stupid side of human nature, a stupidity that is shared by men as well as women, Christians as well as Muslims, Americans as well as Chinese, etc., etc. A certain clarity is necessary from time to time.
Although this must be a slow day as Obama hasn’t been introduced as part of a conspiracy yet, David?
Their misdeeds are “etched in stone.”
What really bugs me is when there is some calamity like an accident, there are always more people standing around, taking videos with their phones, than helping.
The selfie sticks I see all around are a perfect example of the millennial narcissistic culture.
I agree with how they were raised is on display to the world. Of course these entitled women are from CA. Hopefully they will at least learn from this terrible mistake. It’s not like they can just paint over the damage.
My son would never write on a wall, and he’s 4.
Tinear – you are so right about CA schools. There is a map online of school performance, and you should see the scatter shot of red underperforming schools all across the state. The local public schools where I live are absolutely atrocious. I never met so many homeschoolers in my life until I moved here, they’re that bad.
Carve MMXV on their foreheads; let’s see how long that takes to fade away.
Pogo nailed it. And, unlike the Beach boys, I don’t “wish they all could be California girls.” Where I live in San Diego there are many USD students. USD is an expensive Jesuit University only a few miles from the beach. Unfortunately, we have several households on the block. Landlords tend to rent to girls more than boys, for good reason. But, many of these girls are entitled and self absorbed. I love young people. One of the reasons we chose San Diego over Florida was to have a mix of cultures, including young people. I see the good, but the bad is disconcerting. Many have little concern for anything but themselves. All that said, we have some girls living above us. One of the girls has some late classes and works in the library some evenings. A real nice kid and raised well. In conversation, I learned she doesn’t have a parking spot and has to park on the street or in public lots a few blocks away. There are some creepy homeless who live in cars in the lots. I told the kid to call me anytime she’s concerned. We also let her park in our parking slot on Monday evenings when she has a very late night. The girl is very appreciative.
My profession and just my demeanor made me someone who sees it all. I thank God he made me a positive person who sees both the good and bad. These aforementioned entitled students are burning bridges w/ their negative behaviors of loud parties, littering, etc. Homeowners are putting together rules that will limit the number of student houses allowed. They’re not all bad kids, but the bad ones define a group. That is just the way it works, in all cultures.
If a bear craps in the forest and not one hears him, then who is harmed? If some nit wit writes on outhouse walls and no one reads it, then what damage? And if someone scrawls some initials or name on the Colesium wall who is really going to stop to examine it? Soon it fades. Faded glory. California does have its problems. It is becoming like New York. People think that their itShay does not stink. Kind of like Harvard and Yale people.
Paul – As the t-shirt says: “If a man is alone in the forest with no women to hear him, is he still wrong?“
Pogo – Yes
Feminism = Entitlement to ‘no consequences’ because Victimhood! and Patriarchy!.
In other words: Whatever a woman does is right.
The vandalism is of a piece with the recent spate of female teachers bedding their students.
Same amoral feminist selfie-driven mindset
Pogo – my wife would not see herself as a feminist but she does adhere to the following philosophy. Whatever a woman does is right.
And Pogo gets the consolation prize for bringing ‘feminists’ into it and connecting the Colosseum with religion. Such vitriol.
issac – if I remember correctly the Romans had already connected the Colosseum to religion.
We are ‘progressing’ right back to the dark ages.
I attended California public schools in the 1960s and 70s when the system was regarded as the best in the country. Now it is near the bottom. Even the middle-class who can ill afford the tuition have abandoned the public K-12 system in favor of private schools. It’s not just the poor education; the cultural values that are being transmitted seem to produce nihilistic, self-absorbed adults without any sense of civility, maturity or responsibility.
TinEar wrote: “… the cultural values that are being transmitted seem to produce nihilistic, self-absorbed adults without any sense of civility, maturity or responsibility.”
Exactly. When the courts began treating our government as a secular government, and then began making public education more secular and atheistic even, they stopped teaching a culture of duties and responsibilities. We became a culture of rights and fighting for rights. That has led to students thinking that he that would be greatest, let him lead a civil rights march. Let him stand up and fight for the rights being denied to him. This has become the antithesis of the values and morality that Jesus taught: he who would be greatest, let him be the servant of all.
Well, the Professor has a valid question. Maybe these special gals were raised by the Vandals. Society in general has been heading back that way for some time now.
Pogo said it best.
“Really, who raised you?”
Narcissists raised these special snowflakes, now also narcissists.
Like many young people, they lack any useful identity, so they live life in aspiration, looking for meaning in all the wrong places (travel, sex, drugs, clothes, toys).
They have “too much freedom, too much money (which is to say they are still living paycheck to paycheck, but only because they are spending it all on keeping up the identity), too many options and, most importantly, nothing to define them.”
In short, they are areligious, selfish feminists overflowing with self-esteem. They ” did not imagine it was something so serious” because they have been systematically taught to satisfy every single desire that pops into their heads, and then post it in a selfie on Facebook.
The Egyptian workers carved their ‘gang sign’ on the king’s tomb of the Great Pyramid. Napoleon’s soldiers supposedly used the Great Sphinx for target practice. Roman soldiers left their mark on everything, they were famous for their graffiti. Payback is a b***h.