New Dark Age

The term "Western civilization" was very much the creation of American intellectuals at the beginning of the 20th century. The term denoted the world outlook that American intellectuals shared with their European counterparts: science and the scientific conquest of nature, democratic freedom and equality, human rights and the rule of law, material abundance and unlimited progress.

And yet, hardly had the term "Western civilization" surfaced than Oswald Spengler wrote his Decline of the West (1918)! As James Kurth has pointed out in a brilliant essay, "The Real Clash" (1994), the term signifies a merely geographical direction rather than any cultural essence - in contrast to Islamic, Slavic-Orthodox, Buddhist, Confucian, and Hindu civilization. What most clearly distinguishes Western from other civilizations is that religion is not the core of its ethos, even though most people who live in the West are Christians.

Less than 100 years after the term "Western civilization" was invented, America's academic elites began to reject the term. Indeed, they now reject not only America's global power but also American constitutional government, capitalism, and traditional morality.

Multiculturalism (along with cultural relativism) has gained ascendancy in academe, in consequence of which America is no longer a "melting pot" but rather an aggregation of self-assertive and self-justifying racial and ethnic groups such as African Americans, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans. America has entered a post-modern, relativistic world.

Notice, moreover, that multiculturalism coincided with feminism, an anti-Western movement. Feminists see in the Christian West (as well as in Judaism) male dominance and an emphasis on family values that restricts a woman's freedom. Notice, too, that the post-World War II change from an industrial to a services economy has moved women from the home to the office and transformed the nuclear family into the "non-family." The ascendancy of multiculturalism and feminism together mark the end of "Western civilization." History seems to have played tricks on mankind.

The Enlightenment, a movement that began in 18th-century Europe with the separation of church and state, that offered the nation or the nation-state as the object of one's loyalty, has ended with utter hostility not only to the church but to the nation-state as well.

The Enlightenment has thus produced a black hole from which no light can emerge. The nihilism that now dominates Europe and has all but conquered America - recall Alan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind - marks a new Dark Age.

Now it so happens that nihilism underlies American pop culture, a culture which is spreading throughout the globe as a result of America's political and economic hegemony. Devoid of reason or reverence and manifesting man's basest instincts, American pop culture constitutes the greatest threat to all tradition-based societies or civilizations whose core is religious. This is why Muslims regard America as the "Great Satan" - the great tempter - and why Israel, which behaves like a vassal of the US, is deemed the "Small Satan."

ISRAEL'S intellectual and political elites appear oblivious to the irreconcilable clash between the "West" and the "Rest," in particular Islam. Influenced by their American counterparts, they believe in "conflict resolution" and have established departments in universities for the purpose.

Oslo is one manifestation of this obscurantism. It's as if the conflict between the US and Nazi Germany hardly to be compared to the civilizational conflict between Israel and Islam - could have been resolved by peaceful means.

If Germany is peaceful today, it's not only because it was conquered in war, but because the desire to conquer others was bombed out of the German people.

Israel's ruling elites refuse to take Islam (to say nothing of Judaism) seriously. Their mentality is post-modern, permeated by cultural relativism and an effete humanism. They have conditioned themselves into believing that peaceful coexistence is possible between Jews and Palestinian Arabs. (How else can these assimilated Jews appear "acceptable"?)

Never mind that these Arabs are part of a 1,400-year civilization that despises and hates infidels, and that especially hates Jews. Never mind that Muslims have been slaughtering Jews and Christians and even each other down through the centuries.

Never mind that Arab children have been taught to hate Jews and to emulate suicide bombers. Israel's illuminati dwell in darkness.

The writer, a professor of political science, is a member of the Advisory Council of the Ariel Center for Policy Research and an expert in constitutional democracy and philosophy of the American Constitution. Previous

Regarding pop culture, whatever happened to the great composers? We had such great composers such as Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven along with several dozen other great composers. Now nothing.

In fact, it can be argued that we haven't had a truly great composer since Beethoven died in 1827. Granted, there have been some very good composers since, such as Schubert, Wagner and Mahler. But all of them never reached the greatness of Beethoven and died out in the early part of the 20th Century. The 20th Century hasn't produced any great composers whatsoever. Why is that?

And please don't tell me that there were some great composers in the 20th Century such as Aaron Copland and John Cage. These composers aren't even close to being in the same league as Beethoven, Bach or Mozart.

Why is it that since Beethoven, we have had zero great composers?

Although it's easy enough to dig up quite pointed material about Jews in the Koran, history has demonstrated that throughout the Middle East right up to the time of the Greek Revolution Jews suffered no more indignities than other non-Moslem people. In some places they suffered no indignities at all as a consequence of their living under a Moslem government (SEE: Medieval pre-Christian Spain).

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is of modern manufacture and will be resolved just as soon as someone figures out how to bring sufficient water to Arabia and the Sahara.

I had lunch with a Canadian who said we are not a 'melting pot', we are a 'cultural mosaic' now. He asked me if I learned about THAT in US schools. I said NO I finished school many decades ago and we learned the three "R's"!!!! Thank Goodness!!! I graduated from college about the time he was born!

Re:
"Multiculturalism (along with cultural relativism) has gained ascendancy in academe, in consequence of which America is no longer a "melting pot" but rather an aggregation of self-assertive and self-justifying racial and ethnic groups such as African Americans, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans. America has entered a post-modern, relativistic world."

Jews suffered no more indignities than other non-Moslem people.

That is not really something to brag about if you think about it. In other words as long as they remained nice meek little tax paying second class citizen they weren't treated too badly. An occasional massacre, a few beatings, much higher tax, and their sons taken to fight for their Moslem overlords.

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is of modern manufacture

But then they had the absolute gall to stand up for themselves and that was when the whole problem started.

Bookmarked to check out later.

Anyway, here is my theory as to why there have been no great composers in the 20th Century (on the level of Beethoven, Bach & Mozart).

I think that the easy access to music (recorded and live) has hindered the creation of great new music. See, back in the days of the great composers, there were no CDs to listen to, no radio stations to listen to and very few opportunities to hear music live. So in order to hear great music, you usually had to play it yourself at home. Composers of earlier centuries would spend thousands upon thousands of hours at the piano (or other instrument) trying to recreate the work of the masters. Along the way, they would do variations on that music themselves and begin coming up with their own music.

Nowadays, if you want to hear Bach's keyboard works, you don't have to spend years of your life learning and perfecting them at the piano (or harpsichord). All you have to do is pop in a CD. Or turn on the radio. Or go to one of the dozens of performances that are given yearly in just about every major city.

I think this has made people "lazy." Imagine if Beethoven had the entire works of Bach and Mozart and Haydn on CD. Would he be driven to create music of his own or would he instead simply be content to "discover" the music of the past through CD? Beethoven did go deaf so maybe he would have been driven to compose anyway. But had he not had all that practice while he still had his hearing, he probably wouldn't have been able to compose as he did.

In fact, it can be argued that we haven't had a truly great composer since Beethoven died in 1827.

Brahms, 3rd member of the trimverate. Died in 1900... (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms...) or Tschovsky (Sp?). Copland is working on his patena... we need a bit more time to develop a sense s of "sehnsucht" for the "simpler time" in which he wrote. (And to free ourselves from a totally Eurocentric evaluation of symphonic music. )

Islamic Spain was considered substantially different from any other Moslem area, both by people who lived there at the time, in other contempraneous Moslem kingdoms elsewhere, and in modern times by both Moslem and non-Moslem historians.

Due to the constant conflict between the various small city-states (Moslem and Christian alike) after the breakdown of the unified state circa 950+/-?) rules concerning "forced" conversions grew up that tended to mitigate the worst aspects of such events. Those rules also served to put Islam in a position of equality vis a vis Christianity and Judaism - at that time only!

Once the last conquest was completed in 1492, the rules were disavowed by the victorious Christians and the Moslems and Jews were given their marching orders - or a last shot at what amounted to voluntary conversion, itself not terribly traditional.

For the most part, Islamic Spain was considered a very nice place to live and should not have ascribed to it the customs and attitudes of Arabian herdsmen or French knights!

The Enlightenment has thus produced a black hole from which no light can emerge.

Does someone want to argue for this statement since the author did nothing more than make an unsupported assertion.

I believe, as it stands, and separated from its context, it is misleading and incorrect. The offending word is "produced." Obviously the "enlightenmnet" didn't produce darkness. If the sentence had read, "The Enlightenment has thus collapsed into a black hole from which no light can emerge," meaning the objectivity and creativity of the enlightenment has degerated into subjectivity and nihilism, I could agree with it. I suspect this may have been the authors intended meaning. Wish I could ask him.

Hank

"Nothing less than her hand on a platter!"

(You make a good case for a mixed metaphor.)

I don't know about that, but I'm good at coining new words, like, "degerated," which should have been degenerated. I must be quite dense today, because I don't quite get the allusion, "Nothing less than her hand on a platter!" and I'm afraid to guess.

Would you enlighten me?

Hank

Feminists see in the Christian West (as well as in Judaism) male dominance and an emphasis on family values that restricts a woman's freedom

Unlike, say,......China, India, Japan, most of Africa & the Arab world, all of whom give women MUCH more freedom.

Sure.

There have been many "near greats" that traveled, at least partially, into the early 20th century. Ravel, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Debussey. The 19th century produced many who could at least rival for the term "great", you mention some -- here are others (not chronological): Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Richard Strauss, Dvorak, Smetana.

Music was changing modes -- becoming more popularly oriented (as you mention, or at least brush on mentioning). The rise of Jazz and other similar "popular" forms of more free-flowing, less rigid (or mathematical) than the very rule-heavy classical or romantic formats. I think that this is all a part of the changes (perhaps degradation) in western society over time -- as the highest and most "pure" gave way to egalitarianism, and much later -- in our times -- to the exalting of the lowest, most base, social aspects).

I suspect it's all wrapped in the west's social rejection of it's own civilization -- everything is "in" or "cool" except western traditions and modes of thought. And that rejection is due to turning from the highest examples of that civilization to exalting the lowest: In other words, there are no longer great composers in the western musical tradition for the same reason that tatoos and piercings (which at one time were considered a very low class form of expression in western cultures) have now become "mandatory" for all young people -- regardless of their income or upbringing. When you exalt the basest forms of human civilization, it affects all forms of art and expression.

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