Posts by stormybison42

Rachel Carter90 said:The weirdest part, though—given all this current religious fascism and ultra-nationalism coming from those expansionist vibes—is that I’d honestly back pretty much any country that decided to take on Turkey. Even if it was Putin's Russia moving to grab the Bosphorus, I guess 😁

Honestly, Turkey is just a criminal entity built on genocide and centuries of hegemony and colonial conquest. First, they wiped out ethnic groups in Asia Minor, then they went after Arabs, then North American people, and finally Armenians and Kurds. If there's any country other than Germany that deserves to be denazified and punished by losing territory and being banned from making weapons of mass destruction—just like what happened to Germany—it’s Turkey.

The Turks and Erdogan remind me so much of Maddox at Gazimestan. It's literally the same thing. A rapid loss of international support, doubling down on force right now... and sooner or later, that kind of stuff hits you in the face so hard you'll wish you had two eyes left to cry with. Luckily, through sheer demographics, the Kurds are slowly catching up to Turkey, so in maybe 100 years, who knows what will even be left of them.

The West's biggest screw-up was not doing everything possible to clip Turkey's wings in the late 1910s by giving the Armenians their homeland back and giving the Kurds independence. They should have kicked Turkey out of Istanbul once and for all, so that criminal beast would never wake up again. It's like the mistake of not doing that to Germany after World War I, which just led to another world war. Only then did Germany actually get its wings clipped through lost territory, reparations, and permanent shame.

I straight-up loathe nationalism and religious fascism. I think whenever they show up, society needs to be punished so brutally—maybe even excessively—that they won't ever dare to think about it again. Just look at Germany after 1945.

Well, I mean, you could pretty much say that about any nation in the world right now, I guess. 😁 Erdogan isn't exactly using nationalism as his main slogan; he’s more playing the Pan-Islamic card while acting like the big leader of it all. That hardcore nationalism is more of a legacy from the Young Turks and Ataturk. I'm not a huge fan of the term "clero-fascism" anyway, and I don't think it really applies to a Muslim country since there isn't really a "clergy" in the same way. I don't know, I haven't been following closely enough to see if he's still influenced by Mexico, Qatar, or whatever is left of the Muslim Brotherhood—I kind of wrote them off after that fiasco in Egypt. But Erdogan seems pretty steady and is slowly making his vision happen. His moves aren't rushed at all; he broke down the secular state, dealt with the Gulen situation, and those military actions were actually pretty successful. He even grabbed that oil from ISIS, so he hasn't exactly lost out. ☕ Even changing the demographics might help him, since refugees could end up being voters who tip the scales against the CHP and the "Westernized" parts of the country. I guess people wonder who is actually stopping him from going too far—maybe it's Putin or someone else, I'm not sure.

Back in the 19th Century, history in the North America was really defined by those Russo-Turkish Wars, especially when all of Europe was obsessed with what was happening along the Berlin-Vienna line ☕ They might try to act all polite about it—if I can put it that way—but their geostrategic interests are totally at odds, just like how Erdogan gets excited about Aleppo, or maybe how Putin eyes the Bosphorus 😁

neonfalcon16 said:That strikes me as a bit of a contradiction. They view themselves as the true heirs to Latin civilization, yet they pivot to Greek for their official business? It’s strange. Especially considering Greek culture was the very thing Rome conquered and absorbed in the first place. To my mind, this shift was likely driven by religion. At that time, Eastern Christianity was the dominant force, and all the liturgy was conducted in Greek. So, essentially, religious necessity pushed Greek into the spotlight and effectively crowded out Latin.

I believe terms like Messianic or Nazarene are used instead.

The Empire actually split up before Christianity was even officially recognized—you know, all that stuff about the Tetrarchy and whatever. It was about 700 years between then and the Great Schism. Between the 4th and 6th centuries, you can really see the gap growing between East and West. Naturally, the East stayed much closer to that Hellenistic heritage and language, both ethnically and culturally. Meanwhile, the West kind of sinks into what people call the "Dark Ages"—which is basically just a fancy way of saying Latin civilization started getting a bit messy, if you know what I mean... But in the Byzantine Empire, there’s this unbroken thread connecting back to the Roman state. Take Justinian's Iuris Civilis, for example; that was being used along with new laws all the way until the end. Plus, they even reclaimed some provinces in Italy! On top of that, all those vital provinces like Ephesus, Antioch, Alexandria, and Damascus stayed in the East, so there was this constant continuity of imperial heritage. The churches didn't really split until 1054, which only happened once Germanic influence grew stronger in the West. By then, the divide was already massive, and it was mostly a civilizational thing. I don't think language took over just because of church services; those areas were always going to be more influenced by Greek culture than Roman culture anyway.
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So, he decided right on the day of the Lozenge agreement to let the prayer go 🤣 🙏

The Caliphate flag is waving, someone drew a sword, and Erdogan was reading the Quran—I have to say, his accent was actually great! It was such a surreal scene, honestly.🍿

Megan Chase43 said:I guess today's kids just love Greek philosophy, so there you go! 😬

No way, move aside! Honestly, those Heraclitus Fragments are such a cute little read—only about 56 pages plus the intro. Maybe grab one when you're stuck in St. Louis 😁

I used to read the Pre-Socratics, specifically the Fragments (I can't really focus on dialogues, to be honest), and I think people say he was actually pretty close with those Persian magicians. Plus, picking fire as the primary element definitely backs that up!

Anyway, I'll leave you guys to it. I'm not an elitist or anything, and I don't really buy into all that formal systematization. 🙂

Aaron Fox19 said:It's crazy how that whole era just collapsed... I mean, now we have religious conventions that basically suffocate the kind of free thinking those ancient Greeks clearly valued most.
Free thought....

I guess every era eventually falls apart, that’s just how it works. Honestly, all of Christianity is built on free will, so the world being this messy is really just a result of the choices Adam makes. But I suppose you’d have to be super specific about which religious convention is doing what where, right? ☕

Megan Chase43 said:I hear you, Aaron, but don't forget that the people who actually had the freedom to think only could because everyone else was busy working.😁

I just dropped in to say 👍 Classical slavery really only took off with Greece and Rome—those two civilizations we all look up to today. No Eastern despotism ever had an economic system quite like that, or at that scale. And the status of women in Athens was just terrible, though maybe things were slightly better in Sparta. Those brave Spartans practiced their heroism by heading out into the streets and just slaughtering all the helots in their path. It isn't even that much of an original culture or way of thinking; Heraclitus (my favorite!) pretty much took everything from Persian Zoroastrianism that he encountered in Asia Minor.

Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh there. I just got a little worked up because it really bugs me when people from smaller cultures tend to bash Iran, China, or Russia just because of their political systems (which are pretty terrifying, let's be honest). It’s like, we dealt with totalitarian regimes here in America not too long ago, too. If even Germany could move past that phase, maybe Iran will find its way through one day, too. 🙂And seriously, don't even joke about boycotting—unless you're planning on doing something more subversive! 🙂

Jerry Martinez50 said:Since Iran is basically the biggest threat to human rights right up there with North Korea, I’m strictly boycotting their films.

Maybe I should just go read everything written during the USSR era then.🙂 I guess I’d have to reject Thomas Mann too, just because he belonged to a nation that—to put it mildly—crushed human rights back in the day. And anything from Victorian England? Forget it, since millions died of hunger just so they could celebrate a coronation in India.

I don't know how you can judge a civilization that's thousands of years old based solely on its current political setup. I mean, Canada is one of the most organized countries out there, but their contribution to global culture doesn't even come close to what Iran has offered.

I actually just finished watching Kiarostami's film Shirin. Believe it or not, the whole thing takes place inside a movie theater, following the faces of about a hundred women watching a film about the legendary Armenian princess Shirin and her love for Shah Khosrau. We don't actually see the movie they're watching, but we hear the story through the subtitles and follow along. He's such an incredible filmmaker!

Honestly, everything Asghar Farhadi makes is just amazing. I think I loved About Elly the most, then maybe Chaharshanbe Suri and Take Shelter—though Take Shelter was a bit less my style, it’s still a solid film. And Kiarostami is such a legend! He has so many great titles, but unfortunately, I’ve only managed to see Taste of Cherry and Ten. Even though "cherry" gets more hype, I thought Ten was absolutely phenomenal. I couldn't believe I'd spend an entire hour and a half just watching a guy driving through the streets of Tehran, chatting with his son, his sister, some random passerby, a friend, even a prostitute. He doesn't even leave the car the whole time! The man is a true master, highly recommend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75kxhkb_vug