When do you think the Golden Age of Western Civilization was? Personally I believe it’s very pinnacle, epitomie was the La Belle Epoque between the years 1871 and 1914. That age saw the West produce the greatest flowering of arts and literature, the First Globalization (soon followed by World Wars and Communism delaying it for eighty years), and vast progress in science and economic development. I think culture is the one area where the Victorians and Edwardians can claim superiority to us. They had Van Gogh, Jack London, Monet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. Our art is ultra abstract and post-modern and which considers elephant excrement smeared on an image of the Virgin Mary to be “high class” and much of our modern literature is pornography in reality (ie Colour Purple). And yet to think Oswald Spengler spoke of all this ninety years ago at the tail end of the La Belle Epoque. Unlike Mr. Spengler though I believe Western Culture can be salvaged through a revival of cultural conservatism in artistic and literary styles.
Good God no. This period was rife with Anti-Semitism, classism and entangling alliances, leading directly to WWI and WWII.
I’ll take Athens in the classical period between the war with Xerxes and the start of the Peloponnesian war (c. 490 bc to 430 bc). As bright a period of culture as any other in history, and if you were a free Athenian you could personally know everybody in the whole world that would be somebody. You’d personally know what an asshole Socrates was. The Spartans and Athenians had every opportunity to avoid and stop the three decades of war, yet both repeatedly blew it and destroyed their cultures because they hadn’t learned the lesson of that war as well as we have. Thanks Thucydides.
Or, Florence under the Medicis.
As for the East, China under Kublai Khan.
So did the other periods (except there were no Jews in ancient Athens and very few in Kublai Khan’s China).
Yes, there was Anti-Semitism in Florence. But check out 5th century (and 4th) Greece as the foundation of Western Civilization if you haven’t already done so. You won’t be sorry.
Incidentally, if you haven’t yet read Thucydides, you of all people must read it. Most important book on politics ever written. Keep in mind the author was a fan of Pericles and enemy of Cleon.
Except the current one, of course. At least, relative to any other period in human history you’d care to name.
Plus you can buy titty mags in any street corner 7-11. It’s a goddammed Golden Age, I tells ya.
You are factually incorrect. Here, let me help you educate yourself on Chris Ofili’s painting of the Virgin Mary and the ‘Sensation’ exhibition in which it was displayed.
Note the following passage:
I attended the exhibition in London, and can verify that if Ofili himself had not stated what media he used in the making of the painting, you’d never know it. In any event, what, precisely, would be your objection to the use of elephant dung as a textural medium?
When you read the article, if you do, I’m sure you would find descritions of other works displayed in the exhibition that will be much more upsetting to your sensibilities. If you would like to make a case for them being banned, have at it and we’ll see if it holds water.
As for your peculiar notion that The Color Purple is pornography, I see no point in dignifying that with a response.
You know who else wanted to impose cultural conservatism in artistic and literary styles?
Ah, but we have them, as well. And those who came before them. Cultural touchstones don’t exist for the moment, and then disappear with a new generation or age; those that are considered worth remembering are. That’s the benefit of living in the present; we get to have the good stuff of what was had in the past.
More importantly, I’d say, we’re less willing to close our eyes to cultural interests from some sources or some styles. Sure, that means we get some unpleasant things now and again. But we’re more willing to show interest in things that are new. Cultural conservatism, if it worked, might well mean that we get to keep what is good of the old - but at the expense of the good that is new. 100 years from now, people would still be talking about the same things, and in the same way. And cultural stagnancy is stagnancy of thought. History is a gradual tale of things, overall, pretty much getting better. To say that what we have now is enough is a very disturbing idea to me.
I’d say, right now. Outside of the present economic problems Western Civilization is at its peak. Whether or not, why and to what degree it will collapse in the future is the question.
Agreed.
And, frankly, I would argue that “western civilization” has been in a golden age for a good 3-400 years.
I have to say June 16th, 1991, around 9:30pm.
The invasion of Kuwait meant that a lot of Canadian sailors were in the Persian Golf.
Reaganomics finally trickled down to me to the grand total of $14.95.
Robinhood, Prince of Thieves, had just been released.
Local competition in the theater industry, combined with lower worldwide demand for corn, meant the cost for two movie tickets, a medium popcorn, and a soda fell to $14.95.
Centuries of music and art development lead to the release of More than words, by Extreme.
And all of that came together so that I could totally nail this super hot girl I had the biggest crush on.
Major Fambrough: You wish to see the frontier?
John Dunbar: Yes sir, before it’s gone.
A bit before then, I reckon.
Curtis, I want you to check out two books: Inventing the Victorians: What We Think We Know About Them and Why We’re Wrong and The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible!.
BTW, the Edwardian era was known as the Gilded Age, and was notorious for scandal, sex, corruption, etc. It’s quite fascinating, really.
(Although I will say – people really, REALLY knew how to dress. And I LOVE Art Nouveau!!!)
Is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle considered serious literature? Jack London is, but just barely.
In 100 years, when Christian social democratic capitalism is the dominant global culture.
Each generation has its pet sins- ours include petty ones like vulgarity, pandering to the lowest common denominator, consumerism and the worst ones of ingratitude/irreverence and considering people personally disposable, whether they be lovers, spouses, or children, born & unborn. Previous generations had institutional racism, sexism, religious persecution & discrimination, and slavery. Not a great set of choices.
The 18th century, since that’s when everything came together to produce the birth of the modern world. It might not have been great livings itself, but the people of the time had a good mindset for looking back at the past and thinking about how to make stuff work properly overly long periods of time with real human beings as the movers.
Close. I’d say the 1990s have been the peak so far. The Soviet bloc had collapsed, the West was ascendant, the economy was soaring.
Erg. The nineties sucked. Well except for the drugs and the music. But count me in with the people saying we’re in the 3rd or so century of the golden age of the West. Enjoy it while it lasts!
What an incisive rebuttal!
They also had a lot of derivative, overly-sentimental and cheesy crap. You’ve just noticed the stuff that stood the test of time, is all.
Are you under the mistaken impression that realist art, expressionist art, impressionist art and the like are no longer practiced?
I was 18 at the time. Of course it sucked. 