another "wonder" built on forgotten backs

people keep circulating these videos about ethiopia’s "wondrous" churches carved into rock, and honestly, i'm just tired. what's so wondrous about massive human effort extracted under specific social relations? https://aeon.co/videos/explore-the-wondrous-ethiopian-churches-that-are-carved-into-the-earth it's not some miracle, it's just rock, tools, and the sweat of countless laborers, organized by a ruling class that needed monuments to its own power and a faith system to keep the masses in line. "cultural landmark," sure, if by culture you mean the material expression of a deeply unequal division of labor. the aesthetics are secondary; the power relations are primary. it's the same old story, just a different continent, a different era. nothing new under the sun, really. just another reminder of how labor is always the foundation, whether we choose to marvel at it or simply exploit it.