{"id":92325,"date":"2017-05-15T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=92325"},"modified":"2017-05-13T15:11:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T14:11:24","slug":"the-decline-of-the-west-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/05\/the-decline-of-the-west-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"The Decline of the West Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9 Photo: Pepe Escobar<\/p><\/div>\n

Europa, in Greek mythology, was a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus and carried off to Crete. In time, Europe was meant to designate the western extreme of Eurasia. Europe, essentially, was the quite provincial Western seed that then sprouted an octopus: the global West.<\/em><\/p>\n

11 May 2017 – <\/em>Over five centuries after\u00a0the Age of\u00a0Discovery, we all know a long historical cycle is ending. The Decline of\u00a0the West is shorthand for\u00a0a tangle of\u00a0immense complexity \u2013 directly proportional to\u00a0the ascent of\u00a0the century of\u00a0Eurasia integration, driven by\u00a0China’s New Silk Roads.<\/p>\n

Every time I dig deeper into\u00a0the Decline of\u00a0the West, I have to\u00a0go back to\u00a0the roots. And that means \u2013 echoes of\u00a0Stendhal, Keats, Nietzsche\u00a0\u2014 a Journey to\u00a0Italy. I had recently engaged in\u00a0an extended dialogue<\/a> with\u00a0Machiavelli in\u00a0Florence. This time, the French presidential election was looming \u2013 widely billed as\u00a0the “civilized” West facing a crucial crossroads.<\/p>\n

I set out\u00a0after reading Decadence<\/em>, by\u00a0the explosive philosopher and founder of\u00a0the Popular University of\u00a0Caen, Michel Onfray<\/a>. His thesis is devastating; Judeo-Christian civilization, thus the West, was built on\u00a0a fiction, “that of\u00a0a Jesus never having an existence other than\u00a0allegorical, metaphorical, symbolic and mythological.” Over a thousand years of\u00a0art history had conferred him “the body of\u00a0a white man, with\u00a0blond hair and a thin beard’ (where better to\u00a0examine it than\u00a0through Renaissance art?) And “nothing that constitutes this emblematic portrait, finds justification in\u00a0a single verse of\u00a0the New Testament.”<\/p>\n

Thus, Onfray writes, “our whole civilization is based on\u00a0the attempt to\u00a0give a body to\u00a0this being that had only a conceptual existence.” Jesus of\u00a0Nazareth, “who did not exist historically,” becomes the “Christ Pantocrator” (meaning, in\u00a0Greek, “ruler of\u00a0all”), “crystallizing under\u00a0his name almost two thousand years of\u00a0a Western history saturated by\u00a0him.”<\/p>\n

St. Paul laughed out\u00a0of the agora<\/strong><\/p>\n

So here was the road map for\u00a0the journey: Christianity as\u00a0the official history of\u00a0the West \u2013 in\u00a0an almost perpetual clash with\u00a0ancient Greek philosophy. And then once more to\u00a0retrace the steps of\u00a0how humanism \u2013 and the Enlightenment \u2013 briefly lifted the human spirit until\u00a0the slaughterhouse of\u00a0the 20th century led the way to\u00a0the current, end of\u00a0ideology, Age of\u00a0Anger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I started in\u00a0Turin over\u00a0dinner with\u00a0the great Gianni Vattimo<\/a>, one of\u00a0the last, towering European intellectuals. Frail but\u00a0still sharp, Vattimo is like\u00a0a living embodiment of\u00a0a dying world. I paid my ritual homage to\u00a0Nietzsche (“there are no facts, only interpretations”), a fierce admirer of\u00a0the pre-Socratics, at\u00a0the house where he wrote Ecce Homo<\/em> before\u00a0succumbing to\u00a0folly. In Milan, I saw the Silk Road in\u00a0reverse at\u00a0Porta Nuova as\u00a0the city increasingly reinforces its myriad links with\u00a0China.<\/p>\n

As I moved south towards\u00a0Florence, I could not stop thinking \u2013 in\u00a0a Nietzschean mode \u2013 about\u00a0St. Paul, among\u00a0his countless pilgrimages to\u00a0Ephesus, Antioch, Corinth, Pergamon, Tyr, meeting Pythagoreans, Platonics, Epicureans, Stoics, Cynics in\u00a0agoras where they taught their art de vivre<\/em> according to\u00a0reason, always mingling with\u00a0the local merchants, weavers, fishermen.<\/p>\n

Paul hated philosophers. The New Testament refers to\u00a0Paul at\u00a0the agora in\u00a0Athens, which once harbored the prized dialogues between\u00a0Socrates and Plato, Plato and Aristotle, and many a Neoplatonist debate. Paul was horrified by\u00a0this city full of “idols.” He was preaching the “resurrection of\u00a0the flesh,” the abolition of\u00a0paganism and a multiplicity of\u00a0tolerant gods, replaced by\u00a0a one and only, intolerant God. Talk about\u00a0delirium; that could not but\u00a0send partisans of\u00a0Zeno or Epicurus into\u00a0roars of\u00a0laughter.<\/p>\n

Then there was Helen, mother of\u00a0emperor Constantine, turning the Cross into\u00a0a major political business. Helen invented not only the pilgrimage to\u00a0the Holy Land but\u00a0also the Crusades \u2013 that extended historical instance of\u00a0Christian jihad.<\/p>\n

Constantine, a cynical, opportunist strategist, understood that to\u00a0halt the political fragmentation of\u00a0the Roman Empire and domesticate popular anger the best way was to\u00a0adopt a minor, quirky Jewish sect whereby the poor must remain poor (it’s God’s will) and power exists because God conferred it to\u00a0those who possess it (parallels to\u00a0American exceptionalism, anyone?)<\/p>\n

When, in\u00a0May 22, 337 Constantine converts himself to\u00a0Christianity, he converts the whole empire; he kills Rome as\u00a0the center of\u00a0the world (we should not forget that Augustus, founder of\u00a0the Roman Empire, was a devout disciple of\u00a0pagan Apollo); he creates Judeo-Christian civilization; and he opens the way to\u00a0what will become the West.<\/p>\n

Onfray synthesizes it; Rome lived for\u00a011 centuries. But then “the She-wolf was eaten by\u00a0the Lamb”; that was “the inaugural feast of\u00a0our Judeo-Christian civilization.”<\/p>\n

Epicurus does Tuscany<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cynics \u2013 and Epicureans\u00a0\u2014 privilege other modes of\u00a0feasting. By then I had reached Tuscany, armed with\u00a0a pocket edition of\u00a0the Letters of\u00a0Epicurus. Ahead was the sublime countryside in\u00a0Val d’Orcia, worthy of\u00a0a Renaissance masterpiece; Bacchus springing up\u00a0from the perfect bottle of\u00a0Brunello at\u00a0the fortress in\u00a0Montalcino; the simple magic of\u00a0water and flour savored in\u00a0a pici<\/em> from\u00a0Siena.<\/p>\n

And as\u00a0a sideshow, in\u00a0a revised pagan Rome register, I was catching up\u00a0with remembrances of\u00a0La Dolce Vita. How Luchino Visconti ruled Cineccitta. How Antonioni pictured the eclipse of\u00a0sentiment by\u00a0transposing his life with\u00a0Monica Vitti to\u00a0the screen. How Fellini was arrested by\u00a0the NYPD in\u00a0the black Cadillac of\u00a0his producer Dino de Laurentiis just to\u00a0be honored by\u00a0the cops as\u00a0a living God.<\/p>\n

Epicurus teaches in\u00a0his Letters a radical antinomy to\u00a0Christianity. All that exists is nothing but\u00a0atoms that fall on\u00a0the void (so no more resurrection of\u00a0the flesh); serenity is obtained by\u00a0the knowledge of\u00a0atomist physics (thus no government of\u00a0men under\u00a0the fear of\u00a0God); and most subversively, pleasure is the origin of\u00a0good, residing in\u00a0the satisfaction of\u00a0natural and necessary desires (thus no Christian asceticism, penitence, original sin\u00a0\u2014 and interminable expiation of\u00a0the sin).<\/p>\n

No wonder, for\u00a0centuries, Christianity had to\u00a0suffocate this hedonist, sensualist philosophy. Three Epicurus letters survived the Christian Inquisitor because they were included in\u00a0a 3rd-century volume by\u00a0philosophy historian Diogenes Laertius. And then Epicureanism reappeared in\u00a0the 7415 verses of\u00a0Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura<\/a><\/em>. What an extraordinary historical twist; the Christian destruction of\u00a0the work by\u00a0Epicurus the Greek was to\u00a0a great extent saved by\u00a0an immense poem written by\u00a0Lucretius the Roman.<\/p>\n

De Rerum Natura<\/a><\/em> was discovered by\u00a0Poggio Bracciolini in\u00a0January 1417 in\u00a0a German monastery. The first edition is published in\u00a0Brescia in\u00a01473. Enthusiastic readers include Erasmus, Montaigne, Machiavelli, Spinoza, Pascal, Galileo, Newton. Europe really comes alive when humanism oversteps Christianity.<\/p>\n

Poggio Bracciolini traveled all over\u00a0Europe as\u00a0much as\u00a0Petrarca, who had searched for\u00a0Greek and Roman manuscripts since\u00a0the 1330s. When Poggio rediscovers Lucretius, he builds intellectual Europe; the vision of\u00a0the world that puts man at\u00a0the center where, after\u00a0a millennium, Christianity had installed the Christ. Rhetoric, history, poetry, philosophy, letters, architecture, all those disciplines that have shone before\u00a0Christ \u2013 and then nourished those ghastly Christian auto-da-f\u00e9s<\/em> \u2013 are finally set free.<\/p>\n

Nowhere better than\u00a0Florence to\u00a0retrace the steps of\u00a0humanists who created Europe without\u00a0Christianity. Take Niccolo Niccoli<\/a>; when he dies in\u00a01437, he had amassed 800 manuscripts, the most spectacular collection in\u00a0Florence. And he single-handedly invents the modern concept of\u00a0the public library, where you can borrow any book you want.<\/p>\n

Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight<\/strong><\/p>\n

And nowhere better than\u00a0in Tuscany may we revive how Christian mythology was sold to\u00a0the masses\u00a0\u2014 in\u00a0contrast with\u00a0eulogies of\u00a0Greek paganism. The aesthetic perfection of\u00a0Donatello’s spectacularly insolent, adolescent David, Botticelli’s Neoplatonist Spring, or Giambologna’s Mercury shines as\u00a0much as\u00a0Leonardo’s Annunciation and most of\u00a0all the unfinished Adoration of\u00a0the Magi, meticulously restored with\u00a0state of\u00a0the art technology.<\/p>\n

And then we are knocked out\u00a0by a breathless Franciscan masterpiece; the Legend of\u00a0the True Cross<\/a> by\u00a0Piero Della Francesca at\u00a0the St. Francis Basilica in\u00a0Arezzo.<\/p>\n

Onfray frames it beautifully: “\u201cConstantine and his followers made ancient thought leave through\u00a0the door, Petrarca, Niccoli and Poggio made it re-enter by\u00a0the window.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

St. Francis absolutely venerated the symbol of\u00a0the Passion. The whole saga is pictured in\u00a0a sort of\u00a0Renaissance cinemascope 4K series of\u00a0frescoes \u2013 also meticulously restored. Piero based them on\u00a0legends related to\u00a0the wood of\u00a0the cross where Christ was crucified, included in\u00a0the Apocryphal Gospels originated in\u00a0Asia and known as\u00a0the Golden Legend.<\/p>\n

The symbolism is unmistakable; God always intervenes; He is the guarantor of\u00a0redemption; and in\u00a0the end, the forces of\u00a0Evil will be defeated.<\/p>\n

No wonder the Golden Legend enjoyed an immense success during\u00a0the Crusades; one of\u00a0the chapters, the profanation of\u00a0the Holy Land by\u00a0infidels, was used as\u00a0effective propaganda for\u00a0military conquest.<\/p>\n

But Piero, with\u00a0his unmatched formal rigor, transcends it, turns it into\u00a0an epic, a “less is more” modernist aesthetic orgasm even as\u00a0the message remains a myth; Piero’s Annunciation \u2013 arguably the highlight of\u00a0the fresco cycle\u00a0\u2014 symbolizes a rite of\u00a0passage for\u00a0man; condemned by\u00a0the original sin, from\u00a0Adam to\u00a0Christ, he finally enters the age of\u00a0Christianity, where faith in\u00a0salvation, possible by\u00a0the sacrifice of\u00a0the Redemptor, signals hope.<\/p>\n

Yet way over\u00a0a century before\u00a0Piero, the Ambrogio Lorenzetti cycle of\u00a0frescoes painted between\u00a01338 and 1339 at\u00a0the Palazzo Pubblico in\u00a0Siena was hinting at\u00a0something way more revolutionary; the triumph of\u00a0sensible, human \u2013 not divine\u00a0\u2014 politics.<\/p>\n

This meticulous intervention of\u00a0man building an ethic-aesthetic conception of\u00a0civil society still blows our minds away. In his Allegory of\u00a0Good Government<\/em><\/a>, Lorenzetti depicted nothing less than\u00a0the effects of\u00a0good government in\u00a0a sort of\u00a0utopia of\u00a0reality; a solar, serene, laborious medieval city in\u00a0a symbiotic relationship with\u00a0a productive countryside. Something that the West has lost \u2013 perhaps forever.<\/p>\n

Throughout history, the West was enshrined as\u00a0a fable; imagined to\u00a0death; celebrated as\u00a0the fountain of\u00a0civilization; deeply religious, sentimental, paragon of\u00a0secularism, imperial, colonial, political. It’s easy to\u00a0forget that for\u00a0those Christians “discovering” the new world, the West was not the antithesis of\u00a0the East but\u00a0a Divine successor. Now the pendulum swings back.<\/p>\n

On the way back to\u00a0Paris, through\u00a0Epicurean Bologna \u2013 home of\u00a0the definitive tortellini \u2013 I had time to\u00a0revive a last modernist yell, via\u00a0a bilingual pocket edition of\u00a0Pound’s Pisan Cantos<\/em>, a sort of\u00a0pre-requiem for\u00a0the Decline of\u00a0the West. As a lone ant from\u00a0a broken ant-hill\/ from\u00a0the wreckage of\u00a0Europe, ego scriptor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pull down\u00a0thy vanity<\/em>, repeated as\u00a0an incantation in\u00a0canto LXXXI, reads like\u00a0a poignant message to\u00a0two millennia of\u00a0Christianity. And then, riding on\u00a0the TGV, I saw the new French pharaoh, Ramses Macron, studiously and cinematically walking towards\u00a0his pyramid at\u00a0the Louvre to\u00a0celebrate yet one more Western triumph towards\u00a0a Brave New Neoliberal World.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian independent geopolitical analyst. He is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for Asia Times Online. He has been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9\/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of \u201cGlobalistan<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cRed Zone Blues<\/a>\u201d (2007), \u201cObama does Globalistan<\/a>\u201d (2009) and \u201cEmpire of Chaos<\/a>\u201d (2014), all published by Nimble Books. His latest book is \u201c2030<\/a>\u201c, also by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013sputniknews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europa, in Greek mythology, was a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus and carried off to Crete. In time, Europe was meant to designate the western extreme of Eurasia. Europe, essentially, was the quite provincial Western seed that then sprouted an octopus: the global West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}