I was thinking about this very sentiment this morning. My dad and I have had the fortune to take a few trips to see some amazing things together. Neither of us is getting any younger, so I've been getting the bug to plan the next adventure. This morning my dad sent me some youtube video about "the top 50 most beautiful places to see in the world" or some such nonsense... As I watched, I just got kinda sad... some of the locations were beautiful natural phenomena - like waterfalls in Iceland, and the arches in Southern Utah... but many of them were "Temple of XYZ" in Burma, and "Hall of the ABC" in China, etc. When you consider the Machu Picchus, the Great Walls, the Great Pyramids, Chichen Itza, and the others.... you realize the BILLIONS of slaves who lived and died only to work on the given project. There's a sense of guilt as I strut first-world ass across these "wonders". Maybe my dad and I will just go on a walk in the woods...if there's a statue of you somewhere, it's been erected on a mountain of skulls.
The massive architecture bothers me less. I think it's because of shots like this: Granted - those aren't slaves. But life passes so many by without a single testament to their time on earth and some small part of me is proud that there's a giant wastewater treatment plant that will no doubt outlive me and buried somewhere in its visitor center is a picture I'm standing in. The Great Wall killed millions in its building, so far as we know. But the Han dynasty killed millions anyway. Better to die building a wall, I figure.