The Evolution of Western Civilization
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 พ.ย. 2024
- In this video, we compare the birth, solidification, and growth of Western Civilization to the life of a tree in a simple analogy. We also explore where the West is headed. It is a sweeping history of the West (as much as can be said in a short video).
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In 2024, it’d be more accurate to describe it as “devolution”. The end result of liberalism and its downstream effects such as “democracy” are the perils of Western civilization. Any proposed solution that utilizes these principles is woefully inadequate. So many fail to realize this
it's just european
, no such thing as eastern or western
@@jamesclarkmaxwell-v2ncope
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” John 15:5-6
The death of Christianity in the west is the death of the West, like it or not.
We started dying the moment we embraced that Jew religion
@@dolphwonghow? That religion birthed the west.
@@justinianthegreat1444 you're making my point for me. Your outsourcing our pride to a religion rather than our own genetic stock. The Western project was well under way before that commie religion ever arrived to destroy Rome and subsequently infect the minds of all Europeans who would follow.
You are so right. But don't worry, our God resurrected. If we believe in Him we will come back to life too! Let's rest assured in the hope of the living God. Ave Christus Rex! ☧
What's with all the comments addressing mythology and beliefs in the supernatural?. Consider asking the question whether or not your belief is actually true and what evidence do you have to support it? Hint: faith is belief without evidence
To claim that people were "conforming" their minds to the same schools and standards for two thousand years is an overstatement because the Church was the center of culture in most of European history. Wisdom and knowledge were transmitted by monks while 95% of people until the 18th century were illiterate.
I agree "conforming" is not the best word here.
Literacy was probably way higher than 5% for people's mother tongue, it's just that what was considered literate was knowing Latin(or Slavonic or Greek in the East), since that was what the vast majority of books were written in. If a person learned the alphabet they would probably know how to write their mother tongue even if they couldn't read or write Latin, and those people were more than 5% of a population.
Even the Muslim mathematicians like Al Khwarizmi introduced algebra on the basis of the books translated by Al Beruni which he got during his stay in India.
They wont accept that.
It is a good presentation, but I learned more about the present situation compared to the past, from this book: "(prevent) The Death of Christian Civilization"
Will check it out.
Didn’t Muslims gain ancients texts from Christian monks?
I'm sure they did. But they also preserved a few that didn't get preserved through western channels later on.
Muslims coulden't read texts on latin.
Muslims got classical Greco-Roman learning from Middle Eastern Christians translating those classical works from Greek and Syriac into Arabic, from scholars such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Abu Bishr Matta ibn Yunus, Yahya ibn Adi.
Yes, they conquered Christian civilizations.
Hmmm lots of suppositions here. I prefer factual verifiable information.
It was Byzantium that saved many if not most of these important works from the classical era, many today often over-extend the importance of preserving the West to the Islamic Civilisation, while forgetting Byzantium.
I agree I did not give enough credit to the Byzantines here. I think that may require a dedicated video.
No later byzantine Greeks burned many greek texts. Many Greeks philosophy was saved due to Islamic civilization. Many people in renaissance translated Arabic text to European languages. Byzantine did preserve many greek text it was the Islamic civilization. Byzantine only preserved greek art and few philosophy which they deemed fit.
We had a good run......
olympics, fifa, thomas aquanis, claudio ptolemy, eratosthenes, ferdinand magellan, mozart forevor
The model of the tree AFAIK is from Saint Thomas Aquinas.
I'm not surprised I'm unwittingly ripping off someone like Aquinas.
@@ThinkingWest You didn't even mention him - how could you not? Haha. Nor Aristotle or Plato... I suppose you were very general. Good over-view though. Well done.
give women the right to vote and civilization ends 100 years later
Yes without a doubt! We can see this pattern in all western countries. But in reality it is a worldwide phenomenon, everywhere female suffrage is legalised country goes down. We can see this in Japan, Muslim world, Soviet Russia, India and to a lesser degree in China.
one of yours incelish thoughts?
@@damianfleszar8576 You have no counter argument, only an insult, made worse because you probably don't know what an INCEL is.
@@damianfleszar8576low T comment
@@damianfleszar8576Women agree with this statement. Its just a fact that women are more liberal and liberalism destroys society.
Hey there Thinking West. What is your opinion on the university degrees in western civilisations from the Ramsay institute of western civilisation and the university of Wollongong.
I'm not familiar with either. In my opinion, if you want to study western civilization at the collegiate level, write down first what occupations you're aiming for (professor, etc.). I chose a technical degree for a technical profession and have developed my outlet for history here.
Man I watched all your videos about rise and fall and evolution of civilization and looked for Spengler but surprisingly couldn't find. I thought it was a big voluminous work so it takes time but I never thought you never came across him. But glad it is here now if not before.
We'll put something out on him and his ideas more fully in the future. But, honestly, he's a tough read, and it takes time to understand his ideas.
You don’t really understand just how unique Christianity was it was not an amalgamation of Judaism and prominent philosophies. This video comes across as atheistic when discussing Christianity it would have been fine to compare some similar elements of the philosophies to Christianity but to directly call it a fusion is just incorrect and insulting.
Protestantism tends to treat Christianity as more exclusive. Catholicism tends to include the influences up to it.
I understand the criticism. I don't think Christianity is a "fusion" of Greek and Jewish thought in the sense that Christianity was created by them alone. In my opinion, Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism - those Jews (and Gentiles) who do think Christ is the Messiah. However, Christianity was also influenced by Greece - not by Hellenic doctrines or ideas - but by their writing, thinking, methods of inquiry and persuasion, and their interest to connect scientific and metaphysical truths with theological truths. The fact that Christianity has prior influences says nothing about the real claims of Christianity. It says nothing about the historical fact that Jesus Christ existed.
And on a more theological note, we might guess that the omnipotent God positioned Christianity squarely between Greek and Jewish influences precisely because that is the recipe that would propel Christianity as the dominant religion of the West.
@@ThinkingWest I don’t deny the cultural influences it did influence greatly how people worship and the things the church promotes. My only criticism was you comparing the Bible and the word of god it preaches to the great philosophy’s with how you worded it in the video it made it sound like the Bible was an amalgamation of them and ancient Judaism I simply ask that you word it better in future videos. On a theological note I think the need to understand the truth of the world largely came from Greek culture and it’s become what I would consider a core philosophy of the Christian faith.
Good grief. Ask yourself a critical question: is what I believe true TRUE. Truth is based on evidence. Faith is belief without evidence
Yes Christianity was birthed by Greeks.
The most important lesson from Spengler, as it pertains to the West, is that the soul of the West is Germanic, whatever our intellectual or religious trappings. The Germans were not Christianized so much as Christianity was Germanized.
How very germanicentric of him
Yes. Spengler saw the classical civilisation of Greece and Rome as quite separate to that which came to be called "the west". The west has its true roots in the Germanic world.
There were many branches of the Germanic world that took advantage of the decline of Rome to expand geographically across western and southern Europe. But the most important were the Franks, who founded the most resilient Germanic kingdom using Roman Catholicism to legitimise it.
However, despite ultimately giving itself the name of "Holy Roman Empire" the kingdom was Roman in name only. In fact it was once famously, and accurately, described as being neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire
Later, a minor collection of Germanic tribes, became the precursor to a branch of the same western civilisation that, in the end, rose to virtual world dominance, the Anglo-Saxons.
These were not people of classical Rome and Greece. Spengler was right about that.
I liked "Romanized" more, but interesting point.
@@ThinkingWest I would agree it was at first and in the East, but as Christendom developed in the West it comes to take on a distinctly Germanic tone. The Warrior Bishops/clergy of early Christendom are a perfect example.
@@xenophon5354 If thats the old romanticization of the pagan world let me burts your bubble and remind you that its the liberal order that is collapsing Europe, not the traditional order, traditional societies are not collapsing from the destruction of the nuclear family and colective civil society, its that "germanic faustian soul that gave birth to this liberal mindset, the faustian soul that has come full circle. We will now forcefully return to the traditional order, for me personally its a return to the christianity branch of Europe.
The faustian soul that is expressed by the number infinite has forgotten that nobility and leadership can only be attained by the virtue of service and hummility, by waging war to all barriers the faustian soul now has nothing to serve but itself, thus it can no longer be virtuous or noble, it can no longer lead, because leadership, humility and nobility are virtues of service to others, to higher causes.
I love Christopher Dawson!
I've just picked up another of his works....he has so many.
@@ThinkingWest awesome!! There’s so much content you could get from him, he’s one of the few big historians with the right mindset to approach medieval society faithfully imo.
Thank you
gotta love the east/west ragebait
Learn from past, don't live in past. Be willing to incorporate and transform.
Western society and civilisation is the confluence of Christian, Greco-Roman, and importantly Germanic factors coming together. As explained, not just by Spengler, but by many others and as I would argue myself.
Where did the Greeks get the knowledge and wisdom that is considered foundational to Western Civilisation ?
Did they miraculously create it or were they educated by another great civilisation ?
The Celts and the Egyptians had strong influence on Greece, Greece is often held up as the original Western Civilisation because it’s recognisable as such. More “primitive” civilisations in Europe and North Africa have a different character. Hard to define but it’s sort of a self recognition that the Greeks are very similar and the originator of many characteristics of civilisation since. The Romans and the medieval people considered Greece to be their main inspiration as a civilisation.
They are a pristine civilization
There was actually a golden age in philosophy around 500 BC. All the major cultures developed philosophies that understood there are archtypes/ ideas that do not perish like organic life, but rather persist through the ages. So there was more to life than just matter, and it was superior in that it did not die.
I have been skeptical that the Greeks should really get as much credit as they do in terms of originality, but I can only base my skepticism on a hunch. Plato/Socrates probably weren't as original in all their ideas as we think - but the nature of history is that the first to write it down (and have their manuscript survive), gets the credit. I'm sure many Greek ideas came from other places, but we can't know which ideas unless we find evidence.
Succinct and engaging video, tremendous work!
Can someone please give me the track list of the background music that's playing? Many thanks for your help🙏
Bach - Cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis BWV 21
I see. It is important for a growing religion to have stable nation, devote believers, and a unified organization in the early stages.
Please make a video on the role of women in the middle ages.
Good idea
It would be useful to split "The West" into a European theatre and an American. Mainly because apart from a bunch of blue, coastal states and cities, America is still very religious. Another point to consider is that Catholicism and family life is still very strong in Latin America. So in the end, The Americas will be doing ok.
Regarding Europe, I think it is game-over for the Western part. Their original population is dying out, while the influx of immigrants brings mostly an orthodox Islam to those shores. However, Orthodox Christianity will be fine. Current state Russia will protect it.
So... It is over. The West has fallen.
Is falling...
This analysis shows the west as bearers of salvation and portrays indigenous people as willingly embracing the religion, when in reality, it was a massive genocide carried out by the christian colonizers. It also frames the actions of the east india company as leading to technological and educational advancements, when their primary aim was to extract profit from the labor and resources of the occupied populations. Any advancements they achieved were for their own benefit, hindering national progress and purposely denying native self-determination.
The West will fall.
May thy blade chip and shatter.
No. More appropriately stated it is "falling" but not fully "fallen". According to Spengler and others, it's in decline and has been since at least, sometime in the 1800s. Civilizations can take a couple hundred years or so to completely die.
🧃s fault
Genuine question of this channel and for all comments that want to reply to it.
What is the "west"?
Truly, it must include all of europe since europe is a small continent, right?
And what parts of asia is included since its implied europe is west towards asia but the religions of the Middle East domaint europe? And which parts of asia are in particular, not just the Middle East, and also are africa included in the West, and if not, is it the south? And surrly where does the new world come into this as it's natives aren't "western right"?
What enabled the rise of the West:
- Greco-Roman heritage and the Renaissance
- Enlightenment
- European Christianity
What contributed to the downfall of the West:
- US Christianity ("mammonites", all of them, Matthew 6:24) => materialism
West in general knowledge : Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand.
West in Cowboy : yes only in movies or the western part of the United States
The West didn't fall since even the East became West: Japan, South Korea Singapore and ,arguably, even China
Nopes. Belief in reincarnation is increasing like crazy in the West. already about one quarter of the populations in US and UK have belief in reincarnation/rebirth kind of ideas and these are very alien ideas to the West.
This term is derived from the movement of the earth towards the sun. Oh Mr. Sun
What of the Germanic ‘barbarians’ input?! Don’t they get a mention? Most of us watching this will be of European descent and they are likely of a Germanic tribe: Goths, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Lombards, Burgundians, Frisians, etc? Do they have no ideas of their own? It was they that chose and interpreted from all the Roman, Greek, and Christian ideas that you rightly mention. Are they not the primary reason the West is different to the Eastern Europe?
I think you need to do and update, edit, or addendum video.
The late Western Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire are very often overlooked as a hybrid of Germanic and Roman civilisation, in a way the HRE can be considered a proxy for Europe itself for 1000 years. Ancient Greece was also influenced by and an influence on the Barbarian tribes of the Bronze and Iron Ages and the “origin of civilisation” didn’t spread to the West only by the sword of the romans, as it’s often caricatured.
I mention them only tangentially: "The northern root infuses the influence of the proto-European tribes of the various Germanic peoples, those of the eastern European steppes, and the Nordic peoples." Does this one line do them justice? No. But, hey, I need content for future videos.
What about the celts?
They deserve some space in here, but couldn't go into any detail for a video of this length.
All because of a certain group
Nazis gotta Nazi
@@Tolstoy111Antisemitism has existed since the Bronze Age, 20th century Germany doesn’t have a monopoly on that
antisemitism specifically was based on a racial concept of Judaism so it didn’t exist before the 19th century. Before that it was religion based.
@ Jews consider themselves a race, it’s the 12 tribes of Israel first, who claimed descent from Abraham and Noah. The Talmud, the rabbinical interpretations of the Torah and Jewish laws, which is a supplement to the Torah, outlines that Jews are defined by their ethnicity and customs as opposed to simply being a religious belief. If it was only a religion “atheist jews” would be an impossibility.
What music did you use? Lot's of baroque and church oratorios :)
Bach - Cantata Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis BWV 21
Subtly denying Christianity in this video was really cringe. A vague platitude that Christianity shares some similarities with other belief systems is a really weak argument, given that the ancient Greeks exhibited many of the cardinal virtues which would have led them more closely towards God. It’s entirely possible through reason alone to draw closer to the truth and so it comes to pass that a highly developed and intellectual civilisation would have parallels to what had been divinely revealed in Judaism and later in the coming of Christ - the Jews seemed to think so, hence the Sadducees were founded and sought to bridge the gap between Judaism and Hellenism. Seriously though, I guarantee the majority of your viewers are Christian and misrepresenting and dismissing the faith like this will have pissed a lot of us off. Major L, I suggest you do some further reading into Christianity before you post another video on this topic.
Curious, where do I deny Christianity's role? I believe I was very heavily leaning on Christianity throughout. I very much give credit to Christianity.
@ not Christianity’s role, but the truth of its testimony in essentially portraying it as a philosophical amalgamation of preceding schools of thought, essentially a fraud, rather than the teachings and revelation of Jesus Christ. Forgive me if I’ve misinterpreted your point but you essentially seem to have described it as a hybrid of Judaism and Hellenism from its inception rather than unique revelation building on what has come before.
I think you're missing his point. This was a very well done, constructed and thought out presentation.
@@ThinkingWest You betray your real feelings about Christianity in both the words you choose and the way you accented and enunciated them. I could practically see the eye-rolling going on. The fact is the West was at its best when it was solidly Christian, and has been in sharp decline ever since it decided it didn't need Christ anymore.
☦☦☦
Valentinian philosophy would've given us a stronger Christian doctrine than what we got with Roman Orthodoxy.. IMO
AND HERE WE GO /AGAIN,..DOWN THE DRAIN OF HISTORY
This particular road to demise is not organic. It is systemically created deliberately and can be stopped.
Meh…as soon as I hear talk of “stagnation” I tune out.
The problem for civilizations is not avoiding “stagnation”, it is avoiding the loss of a vision of the True, Good and Beautiful.
Many Western orientalists dismissed Chinese civilization as “stagnant” for instance, because it did not exhibit the vast difference between historical periods that the West has over the last millennia; but in reality Chinese civilization was remarkably vibrant right up until Westerners toppled it a century ago. Japanese civilization, before the turn to modernization, was even more stable and vibrant than Chinese civilization, exhibiting very little decadence.
The problem with the West is not stagnation, but senility, a loss of a legitimate intellectual vision of the world.
As far as Spengler, his theory is mainly interesting because at the time he wrote it Europeans were coming off of a century of almost absolute belief in progress and the ascendancy of the West; but as far as the details of his theory they are much less interesting because they are, as far as I understand them, rather idiosyncratic than based on fundamental metaphysical principles.
Spengler’s writing, once again, was useful as a bellwether, a historical marker pointing to the end of the absolute Western belief in progress and the West’s ascendancy that had characterized the latter part of the 19th century and the 20th century up to the Great War.
Absolutely agree that the largest problem in the West is not stagnation in technology or economy, but a turning away from our moral basis.
Perhaps Islam did well due to the way they taxed their victims, particularly the tax of blood.
And rise*
I love the Christian fanatics in the chat crying that Christianity wasn’t praised and all other religions weren’t mocked
Christianity had a political parody where high ranking priests would compete with low nobility in marrying and owning land to expand their influence.
The reason why the bible wasn’t translated from Latin for years was to prevent the people from comprehending it in a personal matter, just like how today we offer sanitised versions of the bible to the youth because reading certain contexts like in numbers where during the unification of Jerusalem it was said to kill all men, non-virgin women and to impregnate those who were still virgin. Said from god’s chosen Israelite.
This doesn’t even get to the basis that Christianity’s ‘original and unique’ concepts were inspired and reinvented from the Babylonian mythos, or the texts of the Greek Hermes which were written in a duration worth 100 years, mostly claimed by Christianised Egyptians. Alternatively you can look at the romanised Christian how the war gods became the archangels and some deities within the pantheon were revised to fit the narrative preached by the Apostles and monks
It’s a ramble I know, but I just saw the unrighteous hatred for this TH-camr because of “Not respecting Christianity for its great accomplishments”
Keep up the good work mate, this is pretty high quality work equivalent to what is taught in university
Get over yourself, monotheist ethnics mattered a fxcking lot in western culture, frankly im tired od hearing you nordics change human history to be your origin story disregarding our cultural heritage on the other parts of europe lot you just carried the whole world on your back forever.
just say european, european classical music is worldwide
js bach, chopin, vivaldi, mozart, paganini, antoine busnois, Cliesthenes, archimedes, verdi is worldwide
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Luke jesus
If Western civilization began with the Greeks, why start the video with an image from ancient Egypt?
Was Egypt ever in Europe or West Asia?
I could have sworn Ancient Egypt was always in Africa.
Hmmmm....Something is seriously amiss here. 😂😂😂.
The beginning of the video outlines civilisation in general and how they rise and fall, Egypt is a stone dead civilisation so its example is used for a fallen one. The West is still around (only just) so cannot be used as an example of a “full life cycle” of civilisation
@@celticperspective5183 The West of today is very different from the West of 1500s which in turn was very different from the West of 500s which was very different from the West of -500 or -2000.
hence, the "evolution" of the West.
The west has fallen
Only Jesus Christ saves from hell. The Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4 KJV). We have redemption through His blood (Ephesians 1:7 KJV). Water baptism DOESN'T save us (1 Corinthians 1:17 KJV). We are saved by grace through faith, not our works (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV).
Do you believe Catholics/orthodox are saved?
@@Thomas_McCoy Do you believe the opposite ? Our Lord Judge is Christ, not you.
"Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21)
This stuff sounds even crazier when you're a former believer than if you never believed it.
No Abrahamic religion is saving the West. For the long term survival of your civilisation you must go back to the beliefs of your ancestors and one of those is paganism.
This video is wrong. Praising only the good sides. Not the bad sides of Christianity.
Ever since Christianity was invented it has been downhill.
No lol.
negative, western culture still rules.
Trolls for Christ.
What role have the juice played in all this?.....
They squeezed all the juice out from people.
western civilisation starts in iraq and egypt. the greeks learnt from the egyptians and persians.
Lol, and egyptians maybe learn from prehistoric Cucuteni culture from Eastern Europe
@@thiephno lol
@@maxtryme1508 do you have empirical evidence to say no?
@@thieph yes eastern Europe at that time eastern was ruled by barbarians lol. Read some history.
@@maxtryme1508 cucuteni culture had the biggest human settlments at their time, and this is about pre history, i don t have to learn history, lol.