english
nederlands
Indymedia NL
Vrij Media Centrum Nederland
Indymedia NL is een onafhankelijk lokaal en mondiaal vrij communicatie orgaan. Indymedia biedt een andere kijk op het nieuws door een open publicatie methode van tekst, beeld & geluid.
> contact > zoek > archief > hulp > doe mee > publiceer nieuws > open nieuwslijn > disclaimer > chat
Zoek

 
Alle Woorden
Elk Woord
Bevat Media:
Alleen beelden
Alleen video
Alleen audio

Dossiers
Agenda
CHAT!
LINKS

European NewsReal

MDI klaagt Indymedia.nl aan
Rechtszaak Deutsche Bahn tegen Indymedia.nl
Onderwerpen
anti-fascisme / racisme
europa
feminisme
gentechnologie
globalisering
kunst, cultuur en muziek
media
militarisme
natuur, dier en mens
oranje
vrijheid, repressie & mensenrechten
wereldcrisis
wonen/kraken
zonder rubriek
Events
G8
Oaxaca
Schinveld
Schoonmakers-Campagne
Hulp
Hulp en tips voor beginners
Een korte inleiding over Indymedia NL
De spelregels van Indymedia NL
Hoe mee te doen?
Doneer
Steun Indymedia NL financieel!
Rechtszaken kosten veel geld, we kunnen elke (euro)cent gebruiken!

Je kunt ook geld overmaken naar bankrekening 94.32.153 tnv Stichting Vrienden van Indymedia (IBAN: NL41 PSTB 0009 4321 53).
Indymedia Netwerk

www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa
ambazonia
canarias
estrecho / madiaq
kenya
nigeria
south africa

Canada
hamilton
london, ontario
maritimes
montreal
ontario
ottawa
quebec
thunder bay
vancouver
victoria
windsor
winnipeg

East Asia
burma
jakarta
japan
manila
qc

Europe
alacant
andorra
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
bristol
bulgaria
croatia
cyprus
estrecho / madiaq
euskal herria
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
lille
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
netherlands
nice
norway
oost-vlaanderen
paris/île-de-france
poland
portugal
romania
russia
scotland
sverige
switzerland
thessaloniki
toulouse
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia
west vlaanderen

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
brasil
chiapas
chile
chile sur
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso

Oceania
adelaide
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
oceania
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india
mumbai

United States
arizona
arkansas
atlanta
austin
baltimore
big muddy
binghamton
boston
buffalo
charlottesville
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
danbury, ct
dc
hampton roads, va
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
idaho
ithaca
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
omaha
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
seattle
tallahassee-red hills
tampa bay
tennessee
united states
urbana-champaign
utah
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
armenia
beirut
israel
palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
discussion
fbi/legal updates
indymedia faq
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech
volunteer
Credits
Deze site is geproduceerd door vrijwilligers met free software waar mogelijk.

De software die we gebruiken is beschikbaar op: mir.indymedia.de
een alternatief is te vinden op: active.org.au/doc

Dank aan indymedia.de en mir-coders voor het creëren en delen van mir!

Contact:
info @ indymedia.nl
Candles in memory of a clash of civilisations
dokter bernhard - 17.12.2008 14:56

Candles in memory of a clash of civilisations

Candles in memory of a clash of civilisations
Credo – The Times – December 2006


Spare a thought for Chanukah, the festival of rededication and light. It is the simplest of all Jewish festivals. All it requires, other than certain prayers, is the lighting of a candelabrum, the Menorah, in memory of the one that once stood in the Temple in Jerusalem.
We do so for eight days, each day lighting one light more than the day before. We say a blessing, sing a song and eat doughnuts (what would a Jewish festival be without food?). Hardly newsworthy. What could Chanukah possibly have to say to us, here, now?

The answer is that the event it recalls — the Jewish fight for religious freedom under the Greeks 22 centuries ago — was one of the most significant of all “clashes of civilisations”. It was a confrontation between the two great cultures that between them gave birth to Western civilisation: ancient Greece in the form of the Alexandrian empire, and ancient Israel.

It may be hard to believe that they were fundamentally opposed. Indeed, Christianity was born in their synthesis, the first Christians were Jews, and the first Christian texts were written in Greek. That synthesis existed in Judaism as well, though it was never mainstream. Its most famous representative was Philo of Alexandria.

But they were opposed. They represented two very different ways of understanding the universe, constructing a society and living a life. Much has been written about one contemporary clash, between “the West and the rest”. Far too little has been said about another clash, this time within the West itself. Essentially it is the same clash as the one Chanukah recalls more than two millennia ago.

In his Culture and Anarchy (1869) Matthew Arnold differentiated between the world of the Greeks, which he called Hellenism, and that of the Jews, which he called Hebraism. Hellenism was about art and the imagination. Its great ideal was beauty. Hebraism was about ethics and obligation. Its ideal was righteousness.

Arnold’s complaint was that in high Victorian England, there was too much Hebraism and too little Hellenism. Today the situation has been almost entirely reversed. Our secular culture, with its abortion and ever louder demands for euthanasia, its cult of the body, its deification of science and scepticism about religion, even its quasi-religious worship of sport, is deeply Hellenistic. Hebraic values such as the sanctity of life, the consecration of marriage, fidelity, modesty, inner worth as opposed to outward displays of wealth and power: all these are in eclipse. Not surprisingly, most philosophers of our time have found inspiration in the sages of Athens rather than the prophets of Israel. Ours is the most Hellenistic age since the conversion of Constantine to Christianity in the 4th century.

Ancient Greece gave the world the concept of tragedy. Ancient Israel taught it hope. In the loose sense in which we use these words today, they are no more than two different aspects of life. But they are in fact deeply incompatible. The French playwright Jean Anouilh put it best: “Tragedy is clean, it is restful, it is flawless . . . and the reason is that hope, that foul, deceitful thing, has no part in it.”
The fate of the Alexandrian empire should give us pause. It seemed all-conquering but within a few centuries it had been eclipsed. Bertrand Russell explained why: moral restraints disappeared; individualism ruled, and the result was “a rare florescence of genius”, but because of the “decay of morals” the Greeks fell “under the domination of nations less civilised than themselves but not so destitute of social cohesion”. That is surely a warning for our times.

Tragic cultures eventually disintegrate and die. Lacking any sense of ultimate meaning, they lose the moral beliefs and restraints on which continuity depends. They sacrifice happiness for pleasure. They sell the future for the present. The West’s less-than-replacement birth rates and its ecological irresponsibility are just two examples of how it too is going the same way.

Ancient Greece and its culture of tragedy died. Judaism and its culture of hope survived. The Chanukah lights are the symbol of that survival, of Judaism’s refusal to jettison its values for the glamour and prestige of Hellenism or what today we call secularisation. A candle of hope may seem a small thing, but on it the very survival of a civilisation may depend.

 
aanvullingen
> indymedia.nl > zoek > archief > hulp > doe mee > publiceer nieuws > open nieuwslijn > disclaimer > chat
DISCLAIMER: Indymedia NL werkt volgens een 'open posting' principe om zodoende de vrijheid van meningsuiting te bevorderen. De berichten (tekst, beelden, audio en video) die gepost zijn in de open nieuwslijn van Indymedia NL behoren toe aan de betreffende auteur. De meningen die naar voren komen in deze berichten worden niet zonder meer door de redactie van Indymedia NL gesteund. Ook is het niet altijd mogelijk voor Indymedia NL om de waarheid van de berichten te garanderen.