Demolitions have pulled down egos of the high and mighty

If you’ve ever built anything – even a humble grass hut – you know the pride of the achievement. But equally as important is the pain you would feel were someone, even the State, to raze it to the ground. Human beings leave three things behind when they meet their maker – progeny, property and ideas.

Property includes the “monuments” we build or acquire for ourselves like residences and other forms of real estate. We associate these “monuments” with our success in the temporal world. We think they demonstrate our superiority over others. For men in particular, buildings are phallic – they symbolise manhood. That’s why demolishing a building is for many of the male gender akin to castration – an act of “de-manning.”