Basically, this whole conversation came with an idea popping into my head. Leftists have to hear a lot about how they are the antithesis of "Western Civilization". However, we're just as valid as westerners as a lib or a CHUD. Why treat me like a foreigner in my own home country? Why do I even carry myself as a foreigner in my own country? That's because I don't think I hate western civilization.
I am simply against political forces that unjustly make others suffer for the benefit of a decadent, parasitical elite: whether it be rich people or a "desirable" ethnic/gender/etc in-group. This is neither unique to the west nor a core pillar of western civilization. However, I am accused of trying to "destroy western civilization" each time I say we should be nicer to black people or we should be more skeptical of oil companies. I don't think any of us get irrationally angry when we see the statue of David, or Ionic pillars. Plato's Republic doesn't have any passages on the importance of destroying the environment for the benefit of the wealthy, nor does it have any passage of relentlessly bullying people who have a different skin color or anyone who fucks in a way that makes the Christian God that no one is aware of yet when Plato's Republic was written upset.
However, this shows how successful the capitalists infestation of our cultural zeitgeist is: where if you criticize these oligarchs, people think you are criticizing the way of life of western civilization.
there is no "west" as such. the only things unifying the west (constructed in opposition to the east) are colonialism, imperialism, and racism. agreeing that there's actually some kind of unified tradition of art, philosophy, or history called The West is conceding the fascists' point.
the fixation on Rome (and transitively, Greece) is actually a great example. here was an empire which conquered practically the whole Mediterranean, including North Africa and Central Asia, and contributed at least as much to the societies which arose there as to Europe's. During the middle ages, the scholars most dedicated to translating and preserving ancient Greek texts were Muslim. But because the empires of the industrial revolution found a need for establishing themselves in the earliest known history, they claimed a kinship with one of the great empires which came before.
IDK. Read Ed Said.
Right. In the so-called "West" the music theory is Greek, the numerals are Arabic, the alphabet is Latin, and nearly every modern invention is the product of some degree of intercontinental collaboration. The fixation on the alleged supremacy of various national/race identities is a cope for reactionaries lacking class consciousness.