>> I would disagree only in that there have been many other cases of mass
>> destruction of information in history, like Alexander's destruction of
>> Persion records, the first Emperor's destruction of pre-existing Chinese
>> records, the Hindu destruction of the writings of the Indian Atheists, and
>> the Spanish destruction of Aztec records. So I'm not entirely sure that
the
>> burning of the Library was the worst, although it might have been.
>
>And aren't we forgetting the Holocaust? The knowledge, skills, culture,
>art, businesses, and history of the Jewish people was arguably a greater
>amount of information lost than Alexandria. The decimation of the
>Americas is probably comparable as well.
I'm not belittling the horror of the Holocaust. But the knowledge, skills,
culture, art, and history of the Jewish people remain intact. In 2 thousand
years, the damage done by the Holocaust will be unnoticeable, just as nobody
really cares anymore that Caesar killed over 2 million Gauls, deliberately
and genocidally, during his conquest of Gaul. But the destruction of the
Library, and the other examples I cite, will never be replaced. I feel their
loss today, and 2 thousand years from now others (or hopefully me) still
will.
Hitler *wanted* to do something as bad as the examples I cited - eradicate
the Jewish race, religion, and culture. But, fortunately, he failed.
Alexander the Great and Cortes succeeded in similar endeavours.