Hmm. While you have a good point it's worth remembering that all man-made beauty has come at a price - the underpaid stoneworkers on mediaeval cathedrals, the downtrodden Hindus building the Moguls' great palaces, or the enslaved Chinese workers creating the Forbidden City. Or think of the way Church money was pumped into the Renaissance art and architecture while peasants starved, or the lovely Georgian buildings of Bristol and Bath financed by profits from the slave trade.
In the end, as Artaud pointed out, creativity depends on cruelty, life on death, in a metaphorical if not literal sense. It's also worth remembering that the classic three-field system we learned about at school didn't actually apply throughout England, let alone the rest of Britain, and some hedgerows antedate Enclosures.
How can we even be impressed by their size without also quailing a little at the thought of the power that decreed it and what that meant in human terms?
Shades of Ozymandias, though?
We have what we have and are where we are. We shouldn't be complacent about sacrifices and suffering in the past, but nothing really is to be gained from beating ourselves up about it.
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In the end, as Artaud pointed out, creativity depends on cruelty, life on death, in a metaphorical if not literal sense. It's also worth remembering that the classic three-field system we learned about at school didn't actually apply throughout England, let alone the rest of Britain, and some hedgerows antedate Enclosures.
Shades of Ozymandias, though?
We have what we have and are where we are. We shouldn't be complacent about sacrifices and suffering in the past, but nothing really is to be gained from beating ourselves up about it.