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I'm not an ancient Egyptian expert but considering their culture was obsessed about the past to the point they created these ancient tombs, i would imagine they

I'm not an ancient Egyptian expert but considering their culture was obsessed about the past to the point they created these ancient tombs, i would imagine they had maybe just a little more respect for their ancestors.

Mikeb85 8y ago
Current Egypt, and especially the ruling class, is mostly Muslim. Their historic MO has always been to conquer and eradicate other religions and pretend they never existed. Heck, some fundamentalists even like to pretend that some more moderate forms of Islam never existed (the Wahabbi Saudis have destroyed a lot of older Islamic architecture in Saudi Arabia). Ancient Egyptian ruins are only there to make money, in the eyes of most of the Egyptian government.
- wavefunction 8y ago
  In some ways you describe Islam but then again you could be describing Christianity. Just a smug observation from an agnostic.
  - Mikeb85 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism Except in this case the Christian world has moved on, the Islamic world hasn't. And let's also not forget about the oppression of Copts in Egypt.
    - wavefunction 8y ago
      Not really. See the recent hub-bub about the Sentinelese and one Christian. Or any American evangelism. You're empty inside.
      - dang 8y ago
        We warned you before about personal attacks. Religious flamewar is also unwelcome here. If you keep breaking the site guidelines we're going to have to ban you, so would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use the site as intended?
Retric 8y ago
Cultures change over 4,000+ years enough to be unrecognizable.
- shard972 8y ago
  A few rounds of immigration from the romans and subsequent conquerers tends to change your culture. Doesn't dismiss the fact that ancient Egyptians had a culturural context that anchored to the past as opposed to the present/future.
LyndsySimon 8y ago
I have my doubts. Seriously - to achieve high-ranking status in a human organization is to become embroiled in politics. At some point in the hierarchy, politics becomes the main function of your position. As a result, people who are skilled at politics are disproportionately represented at the highest ranks of every organization, and those people are very rarely the "true believers". I worked at a trucking company for seven years. I was in process improvement, and my focus was in improving efficiency, reducing losses and damages, and being able to measure the impact of organizational changes. The levels below me were concerned with moving individual pieces of freight and their relationship with individual customers. The levels above me were focused on reducing costs and increasing both profit and revenue - I couldn't have cared less about overall revenue, generally speaking. The levels above that were concerned with trends in the competitive marketplace and long-term growth. Above that? Managing to nudge the entire organization in one direction or another in service to one or more very long-term initiative. Basically, the higher you go in an organization, the less actually matters about what the organization does, at least from your perspective. Leading a priesthood, managing a trucking company, writing legislation, maintaining a bureaucracy... there's a lot of overlap in skills.

Mikeb85 8y ago

Current Egypt, and especially the ruling class, is mostly Muslim. Their historic MO has always been to conquer and eradicate other religions and pretend they never existed. Heck, some fundamentalists even like to pretend that some more moderate forms of Islam never existed (the Wahabbi Saudis have destroyed a lot of older Islamic architecture in Saudi Arabia). Ancient Egyptian ruins are only there to make money, in the eyes of most of the Egyptian government.

wavefunction 8y ago
In some ways you describe Islam but then again you could be describing Christianity. Just a smug observation from an agnostic.
- Mikeb85 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism Except in this case the Christian world has moved on, the Islamic world hasn't. And let's also not forget about the oppression of Copts in Egypt.
  - wavefunction 8y ago
    Not really. See the recent hub-bub about the Sentinelese and one Christian. Or any American evangelism. You're empty inside.
    - dang 8y ago
      We warned you before about personal attacks. Religious flamewar is also unwelcome here. If you keep breaking the site guidelines we're going to have to ban you, so would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use the site as intended?

Retric 8y ago

Cultures change over 4,000+ years enough to be unrecognizable.

shard972 8y ago
A few rounds of immigration from the romans and subsequent conquerers tends to change your culture. Doesn't dismiss the fact that ancient Egyptians had a culturural context that anchored to the past as opposed to the present/future.

LyndsySimon 8y ago

I have my doubts. Seriously - to achieve high-ranking status in a human organization is to become embroiled in politics. At some point in the hierarchy, politics becomes the main function of your position. As a result, people who are skilled at politics are disproportionately represented at the highest ranks of every organization, and those people are very rarely the "true believers". I worked at a trucking company for seven years. I was in process improvement, and my focus was in improving efficiency, reducing losses and damages, and being able to measure the impact of organizational changes. The levels below me were concerned with moving individual pieces of freight and their relationship with individual customers. The levels above me were focused on reducing costs and increasing both profit and revenue - I couldn't have cared less about overall revenue, generally speaking. The levels above that were concerned with trends in the competitive marketplace and long-term growth. Above that? Managing to nudge the entire organization in one direction or another in service to one or more very long-term initiative. Basically, the higher you go in an organization, the less actually matters about what the organization does, at least from your perspective. Leading a priesthood, managing a trucking company, writing legislation, maintaining a bureaucracy... there's a lot of overlap in skills.