Word: herostratus
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that if you want to make your power felt, a good way to do it is by destroying something that, unlike human life, is not even notionally a renewable resource. That "something" is the sense of a readily accessible past, without which there is no memory and no civilization. Herostratus, a narcissistic Greek, burned the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus because he thought it would make his name immortal. The depressing fact is that he was right. If he had not burned the temple, he would be utterly forgotten, along with 99.99% of the rest of the human population...
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