A Latin bloc with Spain, France, Italy, Monaco, perhaps some Mediterranean allies like Croatia (which was an Empire of Venice), Greece, and all its islands, could create the most civilizationally attractive bloc, with one of the highest qualities of life. They just have to find an excuse to avoid adding their “Latin” ally Romania.
 

Notre Dame burned down in 2019 in a mysterious fire. The cause was never found or at least revealed. The fire took place as Catholic churches across Europe, including France, were being burned down by atheists, radical Islamists, and other extremist groups.

It is being rebuilt.

Unfortunately, in a move that clearly damages the historical and religious meaning of France’s Notre Dame, the church looks like it might be built back better as a Woke Disney-like theme-ridden amusement park.

Reports say it will be dedicated to environmentalism and social justice [communism].

Not the Lord God?

Each of the chapels will be dedicated to social justice issues, including a chapel dedicated to the environment and others with African and Asian themes.
...

Confessional boxes, altars, and classical sculptures are being replaced by trendy art murals, with sound and special lighting effects to create “emotional spaces.”

In the African and Asian-themed chapels, scripture will be beamed onto the walls in various languages, including Mandarin.

IT’S A KIND OF DISNEY THEME PARK

Speaking to the Telegraph, Maurice Culot, described the Notre Dame revamp as “It’s as if Disney were entering Notre Dame.”

“What they are proposing to do to Notre Dame would never be done to Westminster Abbey or Saint Peter’s in Rome,” said Culot of the disgraceful revamp. “It’s a kind of theme park and very childish and trivial given the grandeur of the place.”

According to the Daily Mail, officials responsible for Notre Dame’s reconstruction say that the intent is for the monument to be accessible to tourists with no understanding of Christianity, “whether from China or Sweden.”
 

Replies: @Agathoklis

Could anybody here who reads recommend some books (fiction, essays or history), also in Russian, Spanish or even Romanian? I'm pretty familiar with Russian and English authors, but I almost know nothing about Spanish literature (read Borges and Paz, didn't like either very much, actually I enjoyed reading Eduardo Galeano's leftist tracts better).

I'm thinking to finally read one Hillgruber's main works, although it seems most of his output has never been translated, in general if someone (utu?) might recommend some 'powerful' accounts of Europe 1918-1945 (anything like e.g. Lothrop Stoddard's 'Into the Darkness'), that aren't wally-tier revisionist garbage, I'd be thankful.

I've also been looking (admittedly not very hard) for a detailed general history of France, something broad that isn't also just a shallow survey. It feels like an absolutely overwhelming proportion of books in English (or Russian) are about the Revolution, its background, or Napoleon, it's actually not that easy to find a balanced history that doesn't treat all French history as a leadup or aftermath of those events.

Also wondering if there's been any major books dealing with Israel, China (last thing I read was Fenby's 'Fall and Rise of a Great Power: 1850-2009, obviously a lot changed since then), Turkey (I've only read Zürcher's book on modern Turkey), Greece (Roderick Beaton has an excellent survey, but it ends in 2007) or Russia in the past 20-30 years that avoid being hyper-partisan, or at least attempt emotional distance and objectivity? I'm close to finishing a recent (and quite acid) account of Gorbachev's presidency, Vladislav Zubok's 'Collapse', which just came out last year. So a good detailed work on the Yeltsin years to the present I'm looking for.
Probably now would also be a good time to read a modern history of Ukraine too, I read two recently but one was a brief summary and the other was just a partisan travel account of the country post-Maidan.

Also maybe German_Reader (did you read Barnes work on Ammianus?) could recommend any particularly interesting papers or books on Antiquity? I finished Anson's work on Eumenes, 'A Greek Among Macedonians', recently that was absolutely excellent, I'd recommend for anyone who has an interest in that period.

Replies: @German_reader, @Beckow, @Dacian Julien Soros, @Agathoklis, @Blinky Bill, @Dmitry, @Sasu, @AP

It is generally acknowledged that there are almost no Sephardic Jews in Eastern Europe, with the exception of Bulgaria.
 

More confident exclaimed ignorance. Romania, Serbia and especially Greece had extremely large Sephardic populations until WWII, Thessaloniki was practically a Jewish city in all aspects until the great fire of 1917.

I think there must only be a tiny handful of critical commenters on this entire site..
 

Replies: @Agathoklis

All ethnic minorities in the Ukraine will, finally, get a break.
For the past 8 years, they've suffered quite a lot - suppression of linguistic and cultural rights, forceful drafting into a war they do not support, physical terror and, even, murders.
This madness is coming to an end, thank God!

Replies: @Agathoklis

You seem to be one of the very few people here who understand what is going on, thank you for that! The majority of the comments project such astonishing levels of immaturity, I'm starting to wonder if this has turned into a kindergarten but no - even my 5-yo has a better grasp on basic military matters. I guess, Globohomo's "education" has done a great job, after all.

I don't have time for a detailed post but here it goes:

It is not just linking up South Ukraine/sea of Azov to Russia - the whole Southeast will collapse after the Southern and Northern groupings link up - this places a dilemma on the the Ukrainian grouping that is dug in in the Donbass (the Ukraine's the most battle-hardened and capable units) - get into a pocket and feed the meatgrinder or retreat towards Dnepropetrovsk and get massacred by the VKS. Since elements of the Crimean grouping are already near Zaporozhye, the Ukrainians must decide quickly. Either way, the Southeast will be Russian in a matter of days.

After Harkov falls - the whole leftbank/Eastern Ukraine will be in Russian hands. But Harkov is the home of the most radical wackos, so things might turn hairy. There's a rumor that the city administration prefers to surrender, but this is just a rumor and the Pravoseki radicals might not go with that - they've got nothing to lose anyways.

The left wing of the Crimean grouping is, already, at Nikolaev's gates. This forces a dilemma on the Odessa garrison - keep digging in and risk getting surrounded or send a sizable detachment to help reinforce the river Buk crossings at Nikolaev.

I have no idea of the force size in Transnistria/Pridnestrovye but if I were Ukrainian, I'd be really worried - the Pridnestrovye could be used as offensive launch pad in multiple directions: 1. Towards Odessa/Black sea coast clean up. 2. Towards Kiev, thus sever Western Ukraine from the rest of the country. 3. Towards the West, for example - Vinitsa.

Kiev is surrounded from the West, the North and the East. Its complete encirclement will be accomplished very soon.

Since there are multiple indicators that the USA will fight Russia 'till the last Ukrainian (the scorched earth policy of arming criminals, not letting people leave town, etc), the Ukraine's capitulation depends on how quickly and bloodlessly Kiev and Harkov are taken. Given the RoE, this will be a very complex and difficult task to achieve but it must be done within 7-10 days. Otherwise, a humanitarian crisis would develop which will be gleefully utilized by Russia's enemies - the Russians know that.

Finally, instead of watching videos with no context, reading Twitter-"experts" and watching TV, it would be much more useful to focus on the OPERATIONAL picture - for that you, simply, need a map which is relatively representative of the situation on the ground - hell, even the Wiki map is good enough to see what is going on - the Russians are thinking big and they are going after the WHOLE of Ukraine - this is perfectly clear now.

Have a good day/night!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine.svg#/media/File:2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine.svg

Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Anatoly Karlin, @Agathoklis

A side-by-side comparison of fertility and IQ for each region is illuminating.

https://preview.redd.it/ug7sh3mqzfn61.png?auto=webp&s=1493a38a8bfb060e332b4b24b39d55bcffbbefb0

https://preview.redd.it/oadjdc17nw201.png?auto=webp&s=033ab6186ae6674603dfd3daca650f94d81727e3

Replies: @Agathoklis

Literally all these problems are shared by Turkey's neighbors. Anyway in this instance, I'd be happy to be proven wrong, can you argue Greece is doing significantly better?
Armenia, Georgia, Iraq and Syria's decade of catastrophe no elaboration.

Replies: @songbird, @Agathoklis

Honestly, in the medium to long-term, I still see Turkey's future as being very bright.
The Balkans population is in drastic decline, the Arab world continues to be hopelessly divided and ill-ruled, whilst Turkey remains the only state in the region with an industrial base (Iran is the only partial exception, but its industry is entirely autarkic), rich natural resources (with nearby gas/oil owned or disputed by very weak neighbors, or ethnic kin), a still vibrant national culture shielded by growing anti-Americanism, a young population still easily swayed by jingoism, with its constant aggression and 'human-rights' abuses being shielded by the fig-leaf of NATO membership.

Obviously, I don't say this much joy, given my own background, but I think Turkey will continue to remain a model of inspiration for many Muslims worldwide for sometime. The whole world is entering, or about to enter, a huge economic downturn anyway, so Turkey's gov can easily shift blame for its crappy fiscal management.

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Dmitry

With Chinese bosses in mainland China, expats are officially classed as “foreign experts” and are treated with respect except by scions of the revolutionary families. Cheating of expats in China is generally shameless but that applies everywhere else in business. That is not customary by the bosses to their foreign experts as that might get them into official trouble. There is also the possibility of genuine friendships with your Asian bosses.
 

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Ron Unz

There wasn’t all that much straight-forward realistic fiction about how awful World War One was until the end of the 1920s when books like A Farewell to Arms and All Quiet on the Western Front were published.
 

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Almost Missouri, @Buffalo Joe, @Dieter Kief

Yes, the quality level falls off a cliff there.

What about the ethnic makeup of American bands?

The Velvet Underground: included an improbable mixture of Jewish (Lou Reed), Welsh (John Cale) and German (Nico).

The Mothers Of Invention: Frank Zappa was Sicilian I think, and Jimmy Carl Black was famously the Indian of the group...

Replies: @Agathoklis

Replies: @Agathoklis, @S Johnson, @Evocatus

Not exactly. I did evolve to some cosmopolitanism and even sympathy for Spain when my countrymen were practicing terrorism but when that stopped, which was approximately at the time when Spain proved to be a irredeemable member of the PIGS group during the Great Recession, I returned to my Basque roots.

Now, however, my focus is entirely on the beautiful paradise where I live in the Rocky Mountains. My younger son only speaks English and I won't try to instill in him any allegiance to a foreign country.

The Basque cause is long lost anyway. We are too small and Spain and France flooded our territories with their own people so a majority of the inhabitants in the Basque Country now are not ethnic Basques. When german_reader expresses fears that he will once live in a country where his ethnic group will be a minority, it reminds me of the situation in my old country.

Replies: @Mr. Hack, @Agathoklis

Recent Greek history, especially as regards the fear they have of Turkey explains this very well. Greek nationhood and freedom was a liberal cause. Lord Byron died in support of it. This creates a more widely held sympathy with Greek continuity and conservatism than somewhere like Spain, where the dominant nationalism is also, seen by the left, as an oppressor one.

Greece is like Estonia, Israel and even Finland. Spain is more like Russia, Germany and Sweden, in this regard. Some nationalisms were historically rooted in progressive movements, other were not, or have had that sheen scratched off them by other history.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Yes, any simplistic mechanism for social phenomena is always bound to fail in some cases. But I don't think that Greece experienced anything like the religious-political indoctrination that pounded Spaniards during 40 long years, along with a deep isolation from the rest of the Western world. Greece ended WWII fully in the camp of the victors, receiving, if I'm not mistaken, Marshall Plan funds from the very beginning. Spain was much more of a pariah state, condemned by the UN, and at the end of the dictatorship people had a big desire to enjoy the kind of life led by other Europeans that had been denied to them.

With that said, I don't think there's any shortage of hardcore leftists in Greece either.

Replies: @Agathoklis

This is indeed fascinating. I also wonder why.
 

Replies: @Dmitry, @Agathoklis

Jews speak Hebrew, Judaism is living religion and they even have state again in the same place as well, while Latin and Egyptian are dead languages, their native ancient religions also did not survive at all, so hardly comparable even if genetically neither Romans nor Egyptians went completely extinct.

Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Agathoklis, @Yahya

If I was a Jew, I'd probably be smug as hell - they managed to outlive and watch dissapearance of all their great and mighty historical enemies (Babylonians, Egyptians, Romans, Nazis) and also countless other fellow travellers of historical scene (states, nations and tribes), many of which dissapeared almost without a trace, while they stayed intact not even being relatively very numerous in comparison.

Replies: @Agathoklis

I'm quite familiar with Frank Zappa's output, and agree that he was quite innovative and entertaining. As a kid, I used to enjoyed listening to "Uncle Meat", "Ruben and the Jets" and of course "Hot Rats".
I got disenchanted with the bizarre free-avante -garde jazz of the likes of Sun-Ra and Miles Davis during his "Bitches Brew" and "Live Evil' period. I saw him play live during this period several times, and although visually entertaining, not so much musically, at least for not for me. I'll give the albums that you suggest a listen, including Dolphy's.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Do you really find listening to Dolphy's music enjoyable? And Zappa, although he would come up with some good stuff and was straddling the boundaries of both rock and jazz music, will be ultimately remembered as a rock star. What came after the Quintet's music, after "Kind of Blue" and a couple of others, was by and large noise as far as I'm concerned. Miles became a very strange and kooky guy whose musical genius was erased by his descent into a nightmare of drugs and dark strange people.

Replies: @Agathoklis

I double checked and couldn't find any outings that include both Davis and Pastorius together. Perhaps, it was wishful thinking on my part?...I do know that Davis thought that he was a great musician and even dedicated a song in his honor:

https://youtu.be/0PZ7jB-TwSg

I only really came to Charlie Parker about 10 years ago. I came across a wonderful box set that included 10 CD's, an anthology of sorts. Really, great music and equally good mixing too. Since then, I've purchased a couple of other of his albums, that corresponded to his orchestral period - sweet!

Replies: @Agathoklis

Sparta was essentially an Island capital. The Peloponnese has a tiny causeway onto it easily defended by 10,000 men. The coasts were their walls. No need for a city wall. Athens had to have a wall given their exposed position on a large plain and the road to Piraeus the port.

Replies: @Colin Wright, @Agathoklis

For those interested in Black Athena it’s a theory that Greek culture derives from Egypt which is Black, y’all.
 

Replies: @Agathoklis

Speaking of the Aspromontes, fifty years ago today, Bob played his last Major League Baseball game:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Aspromonte

His big brother, Ken, also was a Major Leaguer, and ended his MLB playing career with my Chicago Cubs, back when I was six years old.

Bob is now 83 years old, and Ken is now 90.

Replies: @Agathoklis

There were Greek colonies in southern Italy. People spoke Greek there for hundreds of years.

Replies: @Agathoklis

What language do they speak on the island of Lesbos?

Replies: @Jenner Ickham Errican, @Muggles, @Agathoklis

Replies: @Agathoklis

The only part of the DNA in which we can see some Italian influence across the Empire is the Y-chromosome, but it becomes substantial only in some areas, like SW-Iberia (where many legion veterans were settled). It's also my case, my J2b relatives hail mostly from central Italy.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Could dysgenics help explain the collapse of Classical civilization?

Replies: @Almost Missouri, @Papinian, @Agathoklis

'I know what you mean. I was in Paris, the French Riviera, Switzerland and Germany, four years ago...'

You should try Italy -- Naples, in particular. I dubbed that the northernmost city in Africa.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Oh of course, I'm not one of those people who thinks the 'Megali Idea' should be doggedly held onto, no matter what. Yes, perhaps including Greece alongside countries that did have legitimate grievances, but then continued to repeatededly score own-goals in being unable to give up those grievances (*cough* Serbia *cough*) is unfair. Since 1922 it does seem that every single dispute with Greece has been due to Turkish bad faith.

And yes, Greece did hugely extend its territory during the Balkan Wars (quite adroitly, considering that Bulgaria did most of the real fighting against the Turks), but although technically that's a part of the 20th Century, I'd consider that turbulent era really spans in 1914-1989, just as culturally, the 19th Century proper begins after Waterloo, 1915.

Anyway, the Greek government did essentially manage to ensure the worst of both worlds in WW1, with the (Germanophile) king Constantine attempting to keep Greece neutral, failing, triggering a pro-ally Venezelist coup, and entering the war far too late (or was it after the armistice? the events are so complicated) to make any difference.
I recall that the king Constantine's obsession with getting revenge on Venizelos essentially lost Cyprus for Greece, whilst also triggering the 'national schism', which stirred so much chaos within the Greek government at the time that it's been argued that dysfunction may have lost them the Turkish war. Not to mention it was known that the Turkish war was seen as a Venizelist cause, and something Constantine had always been against, which can't have done much for morale.
Also the war's disastrous aftermath resulted in Athens becoming one of the world's ugliest cities..

Then that national schism (which lost Greece the grant of Cyprus, and possibly the Turkish war) seems to have been a key reason for the succession of petty dictatorships, coups and juntas that plagued Greece until the 1980s.

Greece got off quite lightly on its failures mainly due to the strong Hellephilia in Britain, and Western Europe more generally. IIRC, in the 1870s, Greece even declared a war against Turks in which the Greeks got totally annihilated, and were only saved from complete Ottoman re-annexation (and probable massacre) by foreign intervention. Certainly Bulgaria paid dearly when it overreached, and of course Armenia got almost wiped out.

Then again in WW2, Greece might have been the only country to have a Communist government due to popular support, but both Stalin and Roosevelt agreed for its removal.

Kind of a sidetrack, but I suppose it gives me a chance to ask about the native perspective on the Greek monarchy, Venizelos, and the schism.

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Dmitry

If you count the area of the Kingdom of Greece/Hellenic Republic, sure. But the cultural area retreated tremendously back into the borders.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Yes, AK's endless harping on how Lenin and the Bolshevik coup blew up Russia (he's basically right, but so what) gets pretty tiresome considering how so many other countries lost much, much more power than Russia did, both in actual and potential terms.

I mean, just two take examples of countries from semi-regular commenters on this blog, Germany, Greece and Hungary all had an absolutely catastrophic 20th Century, and all mostly due to terrible policies or just plain incompetence of their own governments.
By contrast, countries like Czechslovakia, Romania, Jordan or Iran that chose not to seethe over with butthurt over revanchism or lost glory have done fairly well.
I still don't think contemporary Russia isn't in any position to antagonise its neighbours any further, even on issues that Russia is mostly in the right.
On the other hand, I don't think Russia had any choice (as a sovereign power wishing to preserve any 'credibility' at all) to do as it did regarding Crimea, so perhaps after the fallout from that Russia's leaders just concluded trying to improve relations with Europe was a waste of time from that point.

Russia is still an independent great power after everything, unlike Germany, France the UK, or Japan. At the 20th Century's dawn, most of these countries were in a much better position than Tsarist Russia, but still ended up with much less relative power at the end of it. AK should be content with that. It could be much worse... Imagine some power-obsessed blogger trying to be an Armenian or Asyyrian militant nationalist.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Replies: @Hyperborean, @Mr. Hack, @Agathoklis

You miss the point of alternate history, which is thinking of what would have been instead of what we have.

Replies: @Agathoklis

There was nothing valid about that guy's "theory"; he's flat out lying. Northeast WASPS have always been the image of athleticism and hegemonic male dominance in America. Catholic immigrants have never had a reputation for athleticism, masculinity, or anything he was talking about. On the contrary, they were seen as rather dimunitive and inert.

Also, the women's suffrage movement was mostly Jewish (read: non-wasp). Feminism and suffrage are anithetical to WASP values, it was Jews and their Irish and Italian kin who voted it in. In keeping with their egalitarian, matriarchical roots and ancestry.

Replies: @Steve Sailer, @mc23, @Agathoklis, @J.Ross, @Dnought

Seems to be true of nearly everyone these days.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Makes one wonder, if Greeks could govern Afghanistan again, or if the Bactrians were just super-Greeks who had average IQ of 130, but whose descendants have been laid low by dysgenics and intermarriage.

Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Agathoklis

What makes me sad is when you write (at least in your own opinion) a pretty good comment, one that took a little bit of thinking and time to write, like #223, and you don't even get a nibble. I thought that at least reiner Tor would have chimed in. Did anybody at least get a smile from listening to Pink Martini's "Get Happy" album? I'm beginning to think that this blogging stuff is a big waste of time. Does anybody know where Bashibusuk (Anon4) retired too? Are the pastures really greener on the other side? :-)

Replies: @Agathoklis, @songbird

My proposal would be massive tax cuts + 10k euros per month for every high IQ family with 3 or more children.

Replies: @Agathoklis

It’s not merely a significant portion involving native genetics, as in the case of Mestizos, but about 90%. These people are mostly natives. And the invaders were not culturally superior (as in Spaniards) or equal (as in the case of Magyars and primitive Slavs) but clearly inferior. So the adoption of Turkic culture and culture identity is as odd as it is sad. It seems like a unique case. In a nearby situation, Persia adopted the crude invaders’ religion but modified it and did not become Arab nor Turkic speaking.

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Svevlad

I'm reading books edited by Karl-Heinz Ohlig which provide the fringe theory that much of what we know of Early Islamic theory is ahistorical. They claim there were no Arab conquest but nativized, established Arabs filling in the void left by the withdrawal of Byzantine and the collapse of Sassanisns. Early Muslims up to the end of the Umayyads saw themselves as sectarian Christians while slowly drifting away from Christianity and ending up inventing a new past for their new faith in late 8th & 9th centuries. Muhammad and his exploits are largely legendary, and his name used to be a title given to Jesus by early Muslims.

The contributors threw out all the historiography and relied almost exclusively on archaeological finds and inscriptions. As expected all the contributors are German and none of them is a Turk.

Replies: @nebulafox, @Agathoklis

I know it’s sincere, it just strikes me as being very weird. They live amongst the glorious monuments and ruins of their ancestors, yet LARP as the crude barbarians who conquered them. Even in the modern age - Greece may be poor and bad by Western Euro standards, but is far superior to Turkey. That could have been them.

Replies: @Svevlad, @Mr. Hack, @Mike in Boston, @Agathoklis

Even better, the man who first called television "an open sewer running through your living room".

Replies: @Anonymous, @Agathoklis

One theory is that the Roman conquest of the Greek speaking lands wrecked Hellenistic science even though the Romans admired the Greeks. Perhaps Greek self-confidence was undermined?

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Graham

When the farthest corner of the globe has been conquered technologically and can be exploited economically; when any incident you like, at any time you like, becomes accessible as fast as you like; when you can simultaneously “experience” an assassination attempt against a king in France and a symphony concert in Tokyo; when time is nothing but speed, instantaneity, and simultaneity, and time as history has vanished from all Dasein of all peoples; when a boxer counts as the great man of a people; when the tallies of millions at mass meetings are a triumph; then, yes then, there still looms like a specter over all this uproar the question: what for? – where to? – and what then?...

This Europe, in its unholy blindness always on the point of cutting its own throat, lies today in the great pincers between Russia on the one side and America on the other. Russia and America, seen metaphysically, are both the same: the same hopeless frenzy of unchained technology and of the rootless organization of the average man.
 

Replies: @Desiderius, @Agathoklis, @Peter D. Bredon

Replies: @Morton's toes, @Almost Missouri, @Spangel226, @Anon, @Spangel226, @Agathoklis, @Hapalong Cassidy

Yes, besides people actually play football for fun and even the training is enjoyable whereas most Olympic sports are awful. For example, swimming laps for hours every day. Factory work or working in a rice paddy is comparatively enjoyable. Olympic athletes mainly talk about how they had to persevere through the training. So one of the keys to success must be putting up with drudgery.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Indiam culture is not geared towards giving a shit about this kind of thing - it is more otherworldly and metaphysical.

This is the culture that gave birth to a majority of the worlds religions and exported spirituality to most of Asia.

Quite simply, not everyone gives a shit about the same things, or is willing to make the same effort for the same goals. I don't understand why this is so difficult to understand.

This idea that everyone has the same goals seems the baseline assumption of the modern world, to the point where people do not understand you when you question it - is this an aspect of autistic Machine mentality? That Machine mentality can't understand"intangibles" like motivations, values, priorities? Or is that since these things can't be measured, they are invisible to Machine mentality?

It's obvious China cares about this more than other countries, and is willing to make a crazy immense effort. I don't know whether to laugh or cry :)

On the one that a Great Power should make such a big deal about nothing shows just how silly and absurd the human race continues to be :( On the other hand, how wonderful it is that the human race is, in it's essence, silly and absurd! :) And when will we realize that all our most "serious" affairs are just in the end - games :)

Replies: @Agathoklis, @JohnPlywood, @Boomthorkell

Replies: @Agathoklis

Actually- both are right. No one exists outside of a national culture, as de Maistre had noted: Now, there is no such thing as ‘man’ in this world. In my life I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, and so on. I even know, thanks to Montesquieu, that one can be Persian. But as for man, I declare I’ve never encountered him.
 

Replies: @Arilando, @Agathoklis, @Che Guava

The Russian Bolshoi Ballet tradition can be seen in their figure skaters and gymnasts.

It's an interesting question: should women's Artistic Gymnastics be a test of athleticism or artistry? The Olympics also have Rhythmic Gymnastics, which is tilted toward feminine artistry.

Maybe they should have Athletic Gymnastics for pure tumbling? But the tension in Artistic Gymnastics between athleticism and artistry makes it along with figure skating two of the most popular Olympic sports.

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Bardon Kaldian

Off topic I guess, but here in Iceland we are discovering that vaccines are not that good at creating the heard immunity everyone was waiting for.

After enjoying mask-free, no social distancing and covid free society for the past few weeks we are seeing exponential surge in infections. According to official reports the highest rate of infections ever seen. This is happening with 85% of the population vaccinated. Numbers as high as 90% having gotten one doze have been reported. I believe we are close to the world record in this regard.

Yesterday 56 tested positive, thereof 46 fully vaccinated. And even worse one fully vaccinated individual infected six people, just to give one example.

In short: Fully vaccinated people test positive and infect others. And few fully vaccinated have gotten sick, even hospitalized. Medical chief at our biggest hospital expects a wave coming his way in about 14 days.

Needless to say the mood over here is dropping like stone.
 

Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Tom Verso, @Altai, @Agathoklis, @Dieter Kief, @Corvinus, @Wild Man, @Triteleia Laxa, @Q-ship, @Truth, @Anon, @Anon, @HA, @niceland, @Chrisnonymous, @Reg Cæsar, @Cloudbuster, @Wizard of Oz

Yeah, "shared universe" is probably more precise. I actually read Antigone first, with no idea that it was related to Oepedius Rex and it existed perfectly fine as an independent work.

Replies: @Agathoklis

I find the notion of "high cultural plane" to be cringey as heck, I have to admit. I'm a writer and I spent an inordinate amount of time engaged with art in detail(in fact, I probably should start a blog, given that I actually make notes on everything), but I don't have any precise idea what "culture" should mean beyond a set of mores and expectations for solving problems in a community. Whenever art tries too hard to be "cultured," in my opinion, its pretentious and frankly, stupid.

One of my favorite movies is probably the Outlaw Josey Wales. Its a great movie, well acted with what is basically a simple revenge story but given great significance given the Civil War context - proper appreciation of the movie ultimately requires that the viewer have some awareness of Civil War. A lot of the spaghetti Westerns were great - they had excellent key visuals: a Fistful of Dollars used facial closeups, almost like still images, which created an excellent mood. Is that "culture?"

Is Lord of the Rings "culture" because Tolkien is an astoundingly meticulous craftmans who wrote and rewrote an universe for twenty or more years of his life? I like Robert Howard's incredibly poetic writing much more so, does that mean that Conan with its big chad muscleman and virgin sorcerers is more cultured than Lovecraft's intricate worlds?

TV series are able to develop characters much better over a period of time than movies, which are quite time bound, but movies are able to place more effort and money in a compressed spectacle. Is the improved opportunities for character development in a series an evidence of its increased culture? Is the precision of direction and the ability to splurge a vast spectacle evidence of culture?

I think it is ultimately a meaningless term, when used in that context.

Ultimately, I just recognize mediums. Each medium has its strength and weaknesses. Just tell a good story and let the audience judge. If I was going to be arbitrary and difficult, then the greatest "culture plane" has to be the Greek play(Oedipus Rex is a beautiful example of a trilogy) and it is tragically playwatching seems not a very popular form of entertainment at all, despite the perishability of the performance, the interaction between audience and actors, and the depth of expression needed to convey without the advantage of pounding music or camera tricks to tell the audience what to feel.

But yeah, just tell a story. Leave "culture" for history to judge.

Replies: @Rahan, @Agathoklis, @Mr. Hack

Replies: @Richard B, @John Pepple, @RodW, @Agathoklis, @Truth

The 2004 European Championship was the worst ever. The Greek win was a complete freak, and Greek teams have done nothing before or since.
The Scots teams that won European trophies and appeared in finals were entirely composed of Scots players, apart from the Celtic team that appeared in the UEFA Cup Final. The Celtic team that won the European Cup in 1967 was composed of players who, apart from one, were all born within a 15 mile radius of Glasgow. English teams that won European trophies later had a considerable number of Scots, Irish and Welsh players.
I rest my case.

Replies: @Cortes, @silviosilver, @sb, @Agathoklis

Your claim checks out.

From a list of the best Italian players of the last few decades:

North: Maldini born in Milan. Chiellini born in Livorno. Baggio born in Venice. Baresi born in Lombardy. Buffon born in Tuscany. Del Piero born in Venice.

Rome: Totti born in Rome. Nesta born in Rome.

South: Cannavaro born in Naples.

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Verymuchalive

Southgate is not a very good coach, he is an excellent coach. With a very limited player base - less skillful than the period from the 1960s to 1990s - he has taken England to the Semi-Final of the World Cup and the Final of the European Championship.

In terms of clumsiness, English players are universally known as not being very skilful but rather oafish and clumsy.
 

Of course, from a Scottish perspective the English all look like Roberto Baggio.
 

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Marty T

Henry Kissinger's 1986 essay on how national character manifests itself in World Cup soccer styles conceives of the basic character of Italians as grim, miserly, tenacious Mediterranean peasants.

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Verymuchalive, @Ausonius, @anon

The Italian National Squad has 3 Brazilian-born players, Rafael Toloi, Emerson Palmieri and Jorge Filho ( Jorginho). All have Italian ancestry and are white. If they did not have Italian ancestry, they would probably have not been capped, even if naturalised. They are certainly much better than England's Black Boys. Moral of story: if you want imported players, get white Brazilians.

England played better than usual but their coach stacked the defence from about the 20th minute after their first goal.
 

Football is the opposite of the usual dunderhead HBD banter on this site. Italians are tactical, composed, steely and intelligent. The English are clumsy, dumb and panic.
 

England certainly weren't clumsy or dumb, and they certainly didn't panic. They doggedly restricted Italy to one goal-scoring opportunity in the 90 minutes, an opportunity other teams might not have taken. Southgate is an excellent coach and all the white English players are capable and hard-working. Even some of the coloured players are too. This is high praise, coming as it does from a Scotsman.

Then he made the grave mistake of giving a vital penalty to an 18 year old.
 

Generally, Southgate has made very effective use of the limited player base he has. But his selection of the black boys is puzzling. Sancho and Saka are clearly no great shakes. Rashford was a very promising 18 year old, who is now not promising at all. The fact that all 3 were selected and were playing at the same time is very odd indeed. The English FA have been pandering to minorities for years now. I don't know what sort of pressure was exerted on Southgate for more affirmative action picks. This issue won't go away. I expect to hear much more of it in the coming months.

Replies: @LondonBob, @Dumbo, @Agathoklis, @silviosilver

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Paperback Writer

In Lebanon, Christians and Druze are in the middle:
 

Replies: @Agathoklis, @AP

Replies: @AnonFromTN, @Agathoklis, @Shortsword

I wrote about Archeofuturism already. That would be it:

"Archeofuturism", a concept coined by Faye in 1998, refers to the reconciliation of technoscience with "archaic values".[20] He argues that the term "archaic" should be understood in its original Ancient Greek, that is to say as the 'foundation' or the 'beginning', not as a blind attachment to the past.[11] According to Faye, anti-moderns and counter-revolutionaries are actually mirror-constructs of modernity that share the same biased linear conception of time. Defining his theories as "non-modern", Faye was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of eternal return and Michel Maffesoli's post-modern sociological works.[11]
 

Replies: @Agathoklis

I have already written that the first to break with the Cyclical Chronological Outlook were the Zoroastrian Indo-Iranian people. They basically invented the concept of progress deriving from an eternal dialectic struggle between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness etc. The final victory of the Saoshyant was to bring the future Utopia. The Jews absorbed and adapted this mindset when they lived under the benevolent Persian patronage. It influenced both the Essenes and the Phariseans.

Later on, the Jews turned against the Persians and helped the Macedonian / Greek invasion. The Jews became partially Hellenistic, that yielded the early Christian sects through the mix of Judaism, Platonicism, Middle Eastern cults, Zoroastrian influences etc. Christianity intertwined the Antique view of progressive decay in human morality with the Zoroastrian notion of a future victory of Good against Evil.

Some non-trinitarian Christians and many Jews fleeing the Roman and Byzantine domination settled in Arabia. In Yemen it led to establishing of a Jewish Kingdom. Arabs adapted the Abrahamic mythology of their Jewish and Christian neighbors, added some Semitic lore and perhaps some Manichean influences and ended up producing a Prophet bringing forth the universal message of Islam: pacification and purification of the whole world through struggle.

In due time, the Jideo-Islamic influences led to Protestantism in Western Europe. The Protestant basically rolled back all Hellenic influences in Christianity and brought it closer to its Semitic roots. They also affirmed the purification ethos producing Puritans and other extreme sects.

These sects settled North America in a time when the British seriously entertained the idea of "British Israelism" and produced the matrix that led to the current World situation.

As soon as people abandoned the Cyclical Chronological Outlook of the ancient paganism, the domination of the progressive was just a matter of time. Jews are not the problem, the idea of progress is the root of all Evil.

Humans do not progress. We evolve very slowly. We are still just naked bipedal apes, but we pretend that we are the center of the Universe. This is the problem.

Replies: @Yellowface Anon, @Agathoklis, @Triteleia Laxa

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1387795535415943172

Replies: @Agathoklis, @Pericles

Opening Tamerlane’s tomb caused the invasion of the USSR and loss of 25 million lives.

Replies: @Agathoklis

At a glance, it seems that within S.S.-Africa itself, the demographic explosion in the next 100 years is going to be particularly concentrated in the west and center of the continent, while the east and south will grow more moderately. In particular, the higher quality African countries – Kenya (3.6); Rwanda (3.4); Ethiopia (5.3) – or, at least, its non-Somali areas – tend to have lower desired fertility, while the champion prospective breeders are the inland Muslim states of Chad (8.2) and Niger (9.2 ideal number of children in 2012, up from 8.2 in 1992; no wonder projections have its population rising to almost 200 million by 2100, up tenfold relative to today).
 

The highest populated African state at the present time, Nigeria, sets the ideal number of children at 6.1 as of 2018 (no change since 1990, when it was at 5.8). If you look at the map closely, you will see major differences between the Christian south (clustering at 4-5 children) and the Muslim north (clustering at 7-9 children).
 

Replies: @Reg Cæsar, @Agathoklis

On that note, Iran should also get Iraqi Kurdistan. It would have more cultural stability as a part of a wider Iranian People's state, rather than in competition with Arabs, while simultaneously, the Shiite Arabs of Baghdad region, Iraq would pleased to be under a good Shiite state. The only reason they weren't was because the Ottomans won a war. It's not like they wanted to be ruled by Heretic Turks or themselves.

Replies: @Agathoklis

Very often the case, but not for the Azeris, as Altan makes clear. It's more comparable if anything to Viking nobility heavily investing in making Russia a European Power when they rose to power, or when a local sino-nomad group takes over China, then doubles down on the Chinese cultural values.

In fact, the Azeris explicitly rejected a more "diverse" nationalist concept of Iran, pushing for a crash course in Persian linguistic nationalism, which is ironically the only thing that separates Persians from Azeris, as Azeris are basically a turkic-speaking Iranic people, and entirely Shi'ite, and before being Sunni(ish) like the rest of Iran, and originally Zoroastrian, just like the rest of the Persian peoples (excluding Pashtuns, Tajiks and Alans, who are variously Sunni or Weird Caucasian Mountain Faith).

It's funny then, hearing some small foreign-backed organizations in Iran complaining about "linguistic discrimination" against Azeris when their own ancestors said, "We're going full Iranian, and every Turkmen in this damn land is going to speak Farsi like it's his mother's tongue."

Replies: @Agathoklis

Interestingly enough, the Azeris were the major leading ethnic figures amongst modern Persian nationalism, identifying very strongly (and with good reason) with a wider Iranian Empire and a more modern Iranian State. The Russian conquest only amplified this. It took decades, and I mean decades, of Soviet pressure and education and more modern nation building on top of a century of Russian Imperial control for that to change, and only within Azerbaijan the Nation.

Even to this day, a lot of leading figures with the theocracy, both the Republican and Priestly aspects, are Azeri.

As for controlling others, I would agree. I think though there is something to be said for culturally contiguous zones that allow for autonomous action within a wider federal or imperial framework. That something can be said in many ways, but it is something.

Replies: @AltanBakshi, @Agathoklis, @nokangaroos

Yes and no, nice map, though. The areas Iran lost were non-core or non-Persian, by adding them the internal variance would increase, e.g. Azeris would be almost equal to Persians. Is that a good idea? With a big city like Baku competing against Tehran?

When large countries (empires?) collapse it is usually of indigestion. Iran will always be a target for destruction by external interests - that has been the situation for 2.5k years - it would make it more vulnerable.

I don't understand the irrational desire to "control the others". Apart from the fact that it is the definition of evil, it never works out. Look at Germany, France, Turkey, England, Hungary, or Russia, Ukraine, Poland etc...whenever their appetites got too big they paid a high price for it. It is the logic of a harem, and harems don't function well and are not really fun (in the long run).

Replies: @AltanBakshi, @reiner Tor, @Agathoklis, @Boomthorkell

Even "gentile" Phoenician history is more consequential.

Replies: @Agathoklis

These concepts developed later by reading them into the New Testament (exegesis) by mostly the Greek Fathers inspired by the Platonism, Pythagoreanism and Neoplatonism.
 

Replies: @The Big Red Scary, @Agathoklis

I'm familiar with the addition of neo-Platonic thought within the evolvement of early Christian doctrine, and also some similarities found in the Zoroastrian faith system. And so many similar sayings uttered by both Gautama and Jesus. Men have been seeking deep spiritual answers to their inner questions since the earliest ages, and Christianity did not spring from a vacuum..

But nowhere have I found the beauty and promises of a future life as found within the gospels as seen through the prism of Theosis:

Psalm 82 vs 6: I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

John 10 vs 34: Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
 

Replies: @Agathoklis

Theosis, similarly to the concept of the Trinity were weaved together strictly from biblical precepts. written under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. God allowed his creation to use its abilities to reason and realize that 2 + 2 = 4.

Replies: @Agathoklis

although, he is clearly superior to Jesus.
 

Replies: @Agathoklis

As Ezra Pound once alluded to, the great tragedy of Rome is that it spurned its native prophet -- the Neopythagorean Apollonius of Tyana -- in favor of an alien, Semitic prophet. This was the ultimate wasted opportunity. The nascent religion that was forming around the person of Apollonius had begun to combine the best of Christianity's moral concepts with the best aesthetic and philosophical conceptions of Hellenic paganism, yet with none of the slave morality of the former, and none of the rank absurdities of the latter.

The failure mode for most Roman religions is that they became insular mystery cults, or that they were simply too complex or ritualistic for mass comprehension. Christianity succeeded because it was just the opposite, and appealed particularly to the lowest and most numerous.

It's just a shame. Such a wasted opportunity.

Replies: @Agathoklis

It is still difficult for me to let go of the world in which Sega Megadrive was the epitome of smooth futuristic cool, and just saying names like "Toshiba", "Toyota", "Panasonic", "Sony", "Yamaha", "Fuji", "Suzuki", "Mitsubishi", "Nikon", god they're burned in my generation's brains forever. "Sharp", "Canon", "Nintendo", "Casio", "Daihatsu", "Hitachi", "Kawaski", "Kenwood", "Seiko".

What I did not realize at the time, and almost nobody did, that the late-1990s sudden stop of Japan was in fact a visible manifestation of a sudden stop and stagnation across the whole Western system. Only Western Europe and the Anglosphere could camouflage it with fiscal b.s. and immigration.

What we see in Japan is a "pure" reflection "in vacuum" of what is happening with say America, England, and Germany, if you take away the masking effect of relentless importation of foreigners and constant clamor of a cultural revolution. You stop paying attention to the bullshit and only look at the basics, you see that "everyone is Japan". Everyone stopped around 1998. Even pop culture stopped.

The question is who simply held on to their achievements, and who began an ugly regression.

Replies: @Agathoklis