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Walking on bones. (Tomb Robbing).

Article Excerpt
Consider that when the pharaohs were buried with the wealth of Egypt, tomb raiders did the economy a favor by liberating that wealth and putting it back into circulation. But at the end of the day they were grave robbers who walked on bones not to achieve any greater good than enriching themselves. We should ask ourselves if some parts of the Web experience have been examples of tomb robbing.

While many do serve tirelessly and well, the vendor-centric nature of the consortia self-selected to create specifications for global systems inclines to self-enrich. Indeed, that is their corporate responsibility, just as it was the responsibility of the priests to enshrine the pharaoh's jewel-encrusted corpse with the wealth of the nation, conveniently declared as the pharaoh's wealth for the afterlife. In the religious theory of the time, the dead pharaoh would serve as intercessor with the gods for mankind's benefit, and the wealth would sustain him in that role. In practice, a lot of gold ended up gathering dust next to a sarcophagus with no provable benefits to anyone this side of the embalmer's nose pick.

Accept for argument's sake that royal tomb building had a purpose. Through the authority of a pharaoh, society took direction and could be organized to create massive public works. The problem was, the task chosen by the authority organized the society but didn't provide a coherent means for sustaining the process except insofar as the next pharaoh copied processes of the last one and workmen trained apprentices.

Meanwhile, gold was being left in the tombs for robbers. Burying the next pharaoh became a problem for the priests. In the case of Tutankhamen, priests raided the tombs of his father and mother. Because Akhenaton and Nefertiti's legacy was to be obliterated, given their monotheistic heresies, this presented an opportunity to continue the process of tomb building and to reestablish the priesthood that had been defrocked during Akhenaton's reign. Walking on bones suited their purposes. It wasn't an innovation. Akhenaton had desecrated the monuments of...

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