The "Western" World

The “Western” World

How do we define what the Western world is? I believe that we first have to step back and view the world of today. The United States of America is leading the world as one of the major superpowers, though maybe not for long. That; however, is a conversation for another time. Christianity is the religion of the West while anything else is considered foreign and therefore wrong. Muslims are seen and portrayed as in the media as angry terrorists and extremists, threatening to destroy everything “right” with the world. This is, of course, a terrible misunderstanding for the people that suffer this problem.

Enough talk about religion and oppression, let’s get to the root of the issue. In order to talk about that we have to review who the Greeks were. In the 5^th century B.C the Persian Empire was expanding under Cyrus the Great. This led to the Persians taking over Ionia and removing the rulers of Ionia, replacing them with Persian Magistrates. This is just a really brief summary of the beginning events of the Persian War, also known as the Greco-Persian War. In this war, the Persians are seen as the bad guys and the Greeks are the good guys. The Persians practiced Zoroastrianism, a religion that prevented slavery, something was alive and well in the Greek city-states. This is very important to note because the “good” guys were the Greeks, the “symbol” of democracy and justice and slavery isn’t democratic or justified, at least not by modern standards. The Persians are depicted as negative because they are not Greeks or any kind of “Western” civilization.

Slavery in the Greek world was different and meant different things for the types of slaves held. This is a different matter altogether, but do keep in mind that slavery was a thing in the “good” Greek city-states while the “bad” Persians did not have slaves. What does this have to do with the “Western” world and what problems they cause? Well, bear with me because I’m getting there. To those of you still reading, I promise that there will be less history and more thinking coming up. Now that we covered the basics for Greece, let’s talk about how they lived after the Persian War. We all know the Battle of Thermopylae, also known as the Battle of 300. For more info on that, suggest not watching the 300 movie and reading about it instead. Anyway after the Persian War, the Greeks decided to make a group made up of the city-states to protect them in case of another attack or invasion. They called it the Delian League, and the city-states had to provide either troops or money. Athens decided to take some money to rebuild Athens and their Acropolis, the place where their main temples were. In addition to slavery, let’s add embezzlement to the list of qualities the Greeks had. Not to mention the Athenian form of democracy was much different than people would believe. Women weren't considered citizens and were offered little protection under the law.

Yeah, I’ll admit that these were totally different times than today, but these are the roots of democracy and Western Civilization. Oh and by the way, the Greek city-states were at war with each other most of the time because of the fact that they didn’t like each other much. That seems like such a good reason for going to war, now doesn’t it? Ok obligatory sarcasm over. Anyway, this is the legacy the Greeks left us but most people don’t know this, or care about it. It is this ignorance of what the “Western” culture that shows how people don’t care about the past.

On the opposite of this is how the “Western” world doesn’t acknowledge how much the “Eastern” world helped shape it. An example of this goes back to Greece again. (Yeah, I know too much Greece). Anyway there has been a lot of controversy over a book published in the 1980’s called Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization which talks about how Greek origins began in what was considered in those days as Asia Minor and Africa. This is quite interesting since there is knowledge of other cultures and people older than the Greeks being part of their origins; however, Black Athena takes this a step further and says that all of Greek culture was inspired by Asia and/or Africa. Whichever you believe, just know that the Greeks were in fact influenced by some other outside culture.

So is the West the definition of good? Is the East evil? There are no answers here for that, instead I offer the simple question: Why? Why do people think that the East is evil, or at least not as good as the West? There have been so many advances made in the East as in the West. For this I offer another history lesson. (Please bear with me on this, I realize how boring this can be, but it’s totally necessary to understand what I’m gonna say). So in the 11^th century AD the Crusades began, a war waged by the Catholic Church in order to reclaim Jerusalem, the Holy Land, from the evil Muslims. So here’s the problem. Wanting to liberate Jerusalem and its inhabitants from the evil Muslims sounds like a good idea, right? Well what if I said that they did NOT prevent people from practicing their own religions or from visiting the temples there? The Muslims respected the religions of the people living in Jerusalem at the time, mostly Jews and Christians, and allowed them to practice their religions freely.

Once the Christian Crusaders “reconquered” Jerusalem, they did what any other peaceful, good-natured Christians would do. They slaughtered every single last person in Jerusalem because they had been considered “dirty” because of the Muslims. The amount of Jews and Muslims massacred is so large that it is often said that this was the first Holocaust, but enough talk of massacres and killing, it makes me sad. One of the upsides to this massacre was that Western Europeans were reintroduced to so many sciences and mathematics lost to people for centuries after the fall of Rome. (Though not everything from Roman times was lost, but that’s for some other time). This is very important to note because so many people forget that this is true. For example if you hate geometry (and who doesn’t), blame the Muslims for developing the math further. Medicine and astronomy were tools that would help the Europeans in the future. It is all of this that shows that the East is not as evil and lesser as depicted.

Now on the opposite of this is how the Greeks developed many medicinal techniques and tools in their time. (Yeah, I know lots of flip-flopping on my part, but it’s my blog so who cares). Many surgical tools at the time were made of bronze since stainless steel wasn’t a thing yet. They had bronze catheters, which would not sound like fun, along with some other bronze tools for female problems, also not fun. Many modern medical tools that are used these days are basically stainless steel versions of these ancient Greek bronze tools. This just shows that while yes, the “Western” world did have help from other people at some points, there were also things that they did on their own and did well.

So ultimately, did I define what the “Western” World is? Did I say whether it was good or bad? Did I say what was wrong with the world? No, that is for you to figure out on your own. I’m just here to ask the questions because I have as many answers as you do about this, perhaps less. To end off this hopefully entertaining blog, I will say this. Don’t be afraid to be brave, because it’s the brave ones that change the world by not following standards and norms. Be yourself and don’t sit in that boring office all day. (The office is a metaphor for societal constraints by the way). Do what you feel is right without worrying about what others say.