The Long Now reverses this, though like prophecy it makes an urgent call for conversion and aims at large goals. It is an odd project, contradictory in its modesty. For the clock to succeed it must attain the status of a mythic symbol. Nothing less is likely to endure for the kind of long haul that Brand has in mind. It is hard to think offhand of a project that has tried to be mythic on purpose and succeeded.
Myth requires centuries at least of negotiation among entire populations to attain that status.
The Eiffel Tower comes to mind as an example of such a project, and the Statue of Liberty, though both have not been around anywhere near long enough to say for sure. That both are French may have some bearing, though I have no idea what it is. Other mythic schemes that come to mind have in common the distinctive trait of destruction. The Library of Alexandria is one, the realm of Alexander another, and the Temple of Jerusalem. Few weep for Rome, though some anonymous mourner puts an annual bouquet on Caesar's grave.