Plato lived there twenty-four centuries in what is today the Greek republic. Ibn Rushd (known here under the name of Averroes) lived in the 12th century in what is now Spain. By virtue of where they were born, both are now European citizens but one is presented as one of the founders of Western civilization while the other is considered a foreigner. Yet it is impossible to establish a definition of Europe that would exclude and include Plato Averroes.
The argument, presented in an article which I forget title and author (but you should read it, it was very very good), aimed to show how the definition of Europe used to deny the entry of Turkey into the EU is artificial. But I think it demonstrates also something we do not teach in school: The historical discontinuity between antiquity and the Renaissance, the fact that these two historical moments have occurred in two different civilizations. Aristotle is more European than Middle Eastern. Socrates coasting sailors from Egypt and Asia Minor, but would never have agreed to define its own civilization as including the territories which are Today England and Scandinavia (land of barbarians!). The Renaissance was not the revival of an ancient civilization, but the birth of a new civilization. * * *
I finally saw The Dark Ages the other day. I could do a detailed critique, but I only succeeded in reproducing the bulk of the film, namely a long litany of chialage which deserves to be shorter. This is particularly disappointing that the focus and intelligence that Denys Arcand devoted to history has always impressed me.
But Arcand's trilogy falls completely within the panel ethnocentric who claims ownership of Western Greco-Roman as a CEO calls for severance pay. And, built on such foundations wrong, the film can only end on a solution just as wrong.
In The Dark Ages , the character of Marc Labreche is overwhelmed by the dehumanization of a bureaucratic society and obsessions mégalomano-materialist that sustain outperformance of his wife (best realtor, "category second ring" in Canada). He finally found a form of balance in the voluntary simplicity and rejection of fantasies that require it media. Clearly, he lands in the Lower St. Lawrence and began to peel apples for a lady who could be an owner of an inn or the guru of a sect. The message is clear: The rule of St. Benedict, who will save us, it is in the monasteries that civilization will be preserved through the Dark Ages who starts.
The problem is that if we, the contemporary West-collapse, we will never be reborn. If an age of darkness settles on our civilization, those who will be the first craft will be those who will be removed from the world (like the character of Marc Labreche) rather than trying to pick a renaissance in drinking from different cultural sources.
With that, Merry Christmas Live the Lower St. Lawrence, where I peeled apples until the end of the world.
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