Friday 6 March 2020

The last item on the current agenda


In Gubbio:



Francis of Assisi and the wolf 


In Fernand Braudel's 'A History of Civilizations:

. . . debates about customs duties, prices and production levels . . . address only the spirit of calculation.

. . .

It is disturbing to note that Europe as a cultural idea and objective is the last item on the current agenda. No one is concerned with a mystique or an ideology; no one pays any attention to the misleading calm waters of revolution or socialism, that still run deep; no one seems concerned by the living waters of religious faith. But Europe will not be built unless it draws upon those old forces that first formed it and still move within it: in a word, unless it calls forth the many forms of humanism that it contains.

In fact, it has no choice. It will either work with them or, inevitably, sooner or later, they will overturn it and cast it away. 'Europe of the peoples' is a fine slogan; but it remains to be achieved.




8 comments:

  1. Sometimes Gwil I wish I believed in reincarnation. Wouldn't it be interesting to come back in a thousand years and see what things were like (and at the same time remember what it was like when we were last here - that's the hard part).

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    1. A thousand years? Imagine William the Conqueror viewing his England of today. I wonder what he’d make of it: Boris, Jeremy, the Royals, the Chunnel, the roads, the people, the traffic, the food, the internet, and covid-19.

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  2. Europe is a long way from this.

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    Replies
    1. The coronavirus proves it. This is a Europe which doesn’t even manufacture medicine for its own citizens.

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  3. Europe pays 'lip service' to culture by occasionally throwing a few Euros at it. Their main activity seems to be misguided economy.

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    1. Local people who take pride in their heritage and want to protect it are not wanted. What is more important than a dozen cruise ships in the dock of a small town and whole streets of souvenir shops filled with imitation Murano glass from China springing up like proverbial mushrooms. Venice today the classic example.

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  4. Replies
    1. Thanks Dave, we stayed in Gubbio for a few days on our annual Italian holiday. Italy is our Portugal 😆

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