Western Civilization: From Plato to NATO
Is "White Culture" disqualifying?
Jeremy Carl used the term “white culture,” which set off rageful explanations of why there is no such thing as “white culture” in America or in the world.
Many neocons argued for “Western civilization,” others for “European culture,” but nobody seems to know what exactly is meant by Western.
And while we now have a strict technical definition of the limits of Europe, the great travel writer Herodotus, who had the most influence on geographical thinking, liked to point out how arbitrary these borders. Herodotus, for example, despite being an exemplar of Europe curiosity, was born and raided in Asia.
The term “West” has its uses. For example, I’m a native of California and it’s not unreasonable to think of California as Extreme West, both geographically and culturally.
Still, nobody seems to know how far The West extends east.
Much of the point of the The West during the Cold War was to exclude the Warsaw Pact.
On the other hand, last summer …
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