It’s wild that, around the entire world, this is what music about riding a horse kind of sounds like. Fast picking to imitate hoof falls. Not hard to imagine cowboys.
67 years ago today, ‘Take Five’ by Dave Brubeck Quartet was released as a single.
It went on to become the best-selling jazz single of the 20th century.
Ep. 102 Che Guevara was executed in 1967 in a remote Bolivian village. One of the last people to speak to him alive was CIA officer Felix Rodriguez. Here’s his story.
I have a simple theory for this.
Any time this question is asked, people point to cultural or moral reasons (e.g., the declinist view of Western society or some other mumbo jumbo).
IMO, this is only because they lack insight into more important structural reasons, such as politics, economics, or institutions. Culture is certainly an important variable when discussing social outcomes. But it's often a black box used to explain variation that can't be explained by more important structural factors (and sometimes, culture emerges from structural factors!). And thus, when people lack insight into politics, economics, history, or institutions, they conveniently wave their hand and say "culture."
I have a simple theory for why we don't build stuff like this anymore: patronage.
These buildings didn't just pop out of the ground. They were funded through imperial or aristocratic patronage. That means they were funded by the state, church, or tycoons (e.g. New and Old Money).
This specific building below is Palais Garnier opera house in France, designed by Charles Garnier and built at the behest of Napoleon III. At the time, it cost about 36 million francs, which I believe is about $500M today. It took about fifteen years to build. The French state was fine with funding it because it projected imperial grandeur.
Certainly, we have expensive architectural projects today. But a lot of the money goes towards meeting code (e.g., structural integrity, seismic requirements, sustainability requirements). Labor is also more expensive now because you can't just exploit people (at least when there are unions). Land might also cost more, depending on the location of the project.
Building something like this today would cost considerably more than $500M.
And who would fund it? Can you imagine if the US government — currently already undergoing austerity cuts — spent something like a billion dollars on a building that only people in a certain city could enjoy? People would rightly lose their minds. You can't build something like this because 1) public scrutiny is higher, 2) we vote, and 3) this is seen as wasteful spending.
Of course, you could get billionaires to fund it. I have lamented that Jeff Bezos buys crappy designer dinner suits instead of using bespoke tailors, but some people lost their minds ("who cares?" "he's rich" or "he can do what he wants").
I'm not suggesting that we make a law preventing Bezos from spending money how he likes. But thus far, he has poured about $15 billion into Blue Origin. Can he spend $1 billion on building beautiful public libraries, theaters, or museums? They can be in this Beaux-Arts or Baroque architectural style, if he likes.
People ask "Why did humans stop building like this?" They should follow-up with: "How were these projects built? Who funded them? And why don't more billionaires today support artisans, craftspeople, and public work projects?"
FWIW, I have made this argument before and if you'd like to read it, you can check out this thread:
https://t.co/ycFWRLUOdh
For generations, a poisonous lie has been allowed to fester—that pre-colonial Africans were primitive people who only learned mining and metallurgy from Europeans.
This falsehood was so aggressively enforced that many Africans today still doubt their ancestors’ technological achievements.
The truth? Southern Africa was home to some of the world’s most sophisticated mining operations centuries before colonisation—a legacy our own people have been conditioned to disbelieve.
The psychological violence of colonialism went deeper than stolen land and resources. Europeans systematically destroyed evidence of advanced African mining while propagating the myth of the “uncivilised native.”
Tragically, this brainwashing worked so well that many modern Africans view ancient mine shafts and iron tools in museums with disbelief, asking, “How could our ancestors have made these?”
The answer is simple: because they were brilliant engineers whose knowledge was stolen twice—first their minerals, then their pride.
Consider the cruel irony: in Zimbabwe, the very word “mine” (mugodhi) predates colonialism, yet some still assume mining was a European introduction.
In South Africa, the Tswana word “tshipi” (iron) echoes through centuries of metallurgical tradition, yet the narrative persists that blacks only entered mines as labourers.
This is the ultimate colonial victory—not just controlling our bodies, but colonising our minds to the point where we deny our own history of innovation.
The evidence shouts what we’ve been taught to whisper:
- The 40 000-year-old Lion Cave in Eswatini shows the world’s oldest mining activity.
- The 800 AD copper mines of Phalaborwa operated at industrial scale.
- Great Zimbabwe’s gold trade reached China and India before Portugal existed.
Yet how many African children learn this in school? How many of us look at ancient mines and think “slave pits” rather than recognising our ancestors’ engineering marvels?
This mental colonisation runs so deep that some Africans today will dismiss these facts as “wishful thinking”—the ultimate proof of how thoroughly colonial lies replaced our historical memory.
The path to decolonisation begins when we stop seeing our ancestors through European eyes. Those mine shafts weren’t just holes in the ground—they were universities of engineering.
Those iron tools weren’t simple implements—they were masterpieces of metallurgy. And our people weren’t ignorant labourers waiting for European saviours—they were innovators whose knowledge was stolen and repackaged as foreign genius.
Reclaiming this truth does more than correct the historical record—it excises the colonial poison that taught us to be ashamed of our own brilliance.
The mines our ancestors left behind aren’t just archaeological sites—they’re birth certificates proving our long lineage of technological excellence. It’s time we stopped apologising for their achievements and started celebrating them.
https://t.co/0yQbZ6nerN
https://t.co/49wj3Pzy6F