Author Topic: Western Civilization is UGLY  (Read 7521 times)

Zea_mays

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Re: Western Civilization is UGLY
« Reply #75 on: July 20, 2021, 09:15:38 am »
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Many of those in the Italian diaspora feel closer to "Italy" (i.e. the Italian Renaissance) and hence Western Civilization than they do to America.

Which is why Columbus Day is a holiday in the US, despite Columbus never setting foot in the US--so Italian-descendants in New York could have a holiday dedicated to an "Italian"!

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On a different topic, I recently learned the exteriors of gothic cathedrals used to be covered in gaudy paint:

https://www.churchpop.com/2015/02/23/medieval-cathedrals-color/

https://useum.org/artwork/Wells-Cathedral-s-Magnum-Opus-Main-Panel-15th-century-2005-C-Matthew-Grayson-matthew-grayson-2005








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(Similarly, this is why cultural appropriation is annoying.)


I wish more discussions about cultural appropriation mentioned Western Civilization's long history of it. Most activists who speak out against cultural appropriation seem to focus exclusively on present-day examples, yet are always extremely vague and rarely list anything specific.

Meanwhile, for hundreds of years non-Western cultures were imitated, commercialized, and fetishized for their 'exoticness' while Western nations colonized and subjgated them... It's not "cultural exchange" when only one side is doing all the taking and is producing a shallow imitation, nor is it "cultural appreciation" when one side is literally colonizing and subjugating the other...

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Europeans developed an appetite for exoticism as greater emphasis was put on empire building and colonization in other nations. There was a growing fashion for Turkish styles in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Europeans did not regard Ottomans as rivals that they had to contend with and imitate militarily, politically, or diplomatically, but rather as an exotic foreign people possessing quaint and strange fashions that could be consumed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turquerie#European_perspective
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinoiserie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonisme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism#In_European_architecture_and_design

They even tried to appropriate Chinese garden designs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharawadgi

Although it helped them move a bit away from the "French formal garden" style:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_landscape_garden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_landscape_garden