Monemvasia is a rock that rises dramatically from the Aegean sea off the east coast of Peloponnesos, the lower peninsula of Greece that juts far out into the Mediterranean Sea. An ancient fortress that faces Turkey, it was an important trading post for many centuries. It is a stone village etched into the edge of the rock almost a millenium ago and is now being lovingly refurbished. At the top of the rock sits a small castle, a Byzantine church and a random cemetery. Encircling the entire village is a very tall stone wall for keeping a wary eye towards the east. Threaded haphazardly throughout the village and fortress is a labyrinth of narrow cobblestone alleys, passageways and tunnels.
We rented a room on the rock in the village for a night for $60 and slept in a building that had been standing for anywhere from 500 to 1500 years. There is something undeniably exciting about this. Lying in bed, I could sense the endless generations that had passed their lives before me. I couldn't help but wonder how many lives had started and how many had expired in our room as we swaddled ourselves in the ignorance of our selves. I felt my life as a fleeting and glorious spark, a flash of time, about to be snuffed out by the ruckus of history with barely enough time for a fine cup of turkish coffee.
The fortress of Monemvasia was founded in 583 by people seeking refuge from the Slavic and Avaric invasions of Greece. It developed into an important trade route in the 10th century. The fortress was able to withstand Arab and Norman invasions and conquests and was successively governed by the Venetians and Ottomans.
Sitting atop the rock and looking out at the Aegean Sea and down on the small red clay roofs below us, I could not resist thinking about the nature of power. A fortress of stones that took many hundreds of years to build was erected to protect and facilitate great wealth generated from trade. Today we use algorithms and computers rather than stone walls. However, we still employ armies not only only to protect our economic interests, but to steal the wealth of others. This is not progress. Will globalization finally make this brutal artifact of human economic evolution obsolescent? I am hopeful. A tighter web we weave of interconnected interests, nothwithstanding the unsustainable policies of neoliberal looting.
Another thing that seemed very clear to me on the rock of Monemvasia is this. Government by oligarchy has never waned. The European Union orchestrates transnational banking mergers and continues to move towards privatization and consolidation with increasing efficiency. Where is our race heading? Will we fly or will we fall when we finally lurch full speed over the precipice that races up to meet us one day very soon?