Day: November 30, 2007

Enduring Culture

Culture that is appealing, vibrant, and of value always endures – while culture that is lifeless, ugly and valueless fades and is forgotten like Parthian sculpture.  Greco-Roman styling washed over the Assyrian and Babylonian styles and overcame them.Greco-Roman was more appealing, enduring, and true. A Greco-Roman boar sculpture would not have a head disproportionate to the body for instance, even if it the artist might style it anthropomorphically.

What is interesting and appealing is the Greco-Roman influenced Parthian art, and many of those pieces survive to this day. When tribes meet then trade of goods and trade of culture ensues – it is as natural to humans as breathing is.

A small minority in every tribe or community lives in fear of change, in fear of new things, new people, new ways. They cling to the old, whether the new is represented by new culture or new technology.

Sometimes that old that they cling to is ugly — and sometimes not. The things beautiful and true however cross borders and are adopted by other cultures — thus the appealing endures over time, and all things ugly enjoy a fad or a short period of propagation, but over long periods they fade away.

Thus you see Zen gardens in homes in the United States, and you see neon lights all over Tokyo. Here’s an example of what can happen when cultures collide, and this will survive.

So in 500 years you will still see Shakespeare in the park, you will still hear beautiful music, but the works of Maurice Bardeche will be horrific museum curio on some dark shelf, known only to a curious and studious few. Ugly and evil fades and is forgot, truth and beauty survive. So, if you want culture that survives and is cherished, look closely at what you cling to, and what you toss aside.

Lynch Mob Forms After Friday Prayers in Sudan

In a clear sign of where the hate of extremists originates, a lynch mob of thousands of Muslims formed after Friday prayers in the Sudan calling for the death of a British teacher. The teacher had allowed one of her students to call their teddy-bear Mohammed. Sentenced to a lesser charge, she will serve fifteen days in prison and then be deported, as detailed at Little Green Footballs.

Story from Fox News:

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, protested Friday outside the presidential palace in Khartoum, demanding the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pick-up trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation.
They massed in central Martyrs Square, outside the palace, where hundreds of riot police were deployed, though they did not attempt to disrupt the rally. “Shame, shame on the U.K.,” protesters chanted, and they called for Gibbons’ execution, saying, “No tolerance: Execution,” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”

The women’s prison where Gibbons is being held is far from the site. Unity High School, which is closer by in central Khartoum, is under heavy security protection.

The protest arose despite vows by Sudanese security officials the day before, during Gibbons’ trial, that threatened demonstrations after Friday prayers would not take place. Some of the protesters carried green banners with the name of the Society for Support of the Prophet Muhammad, a previously unknown group.

Update: more at Little Green Footballs, and you have to wonder why the government of Sudan will take time to prosecute this and not the Janjaweed murderers.