Quite interesting.
I’d say two things. The first is that, unless you have a degree of relativism about civilization, you’re lost. One person’s civilization is another person’s barbarism; history teaches that civilization is always the insiders’ view of themselves. As for the pandemic, rather than “civilization,” let’s say it’s perhaps challenged the role of “arts and culture.” There’s been a bit of a blindness to those things — a sense that what was really keeping us on the road was, of course, the work of scientists, who were working on the vaccine and on better treatment. And in no way would I like to suggest that that wasn’t important. But people tend to think that music, literature, and so on is icing on the cake.
But the arts are essential. They help you understand what you are experiencing. Look at ancient history. Where does Western literature start? It starts, in the “Iliad,”…
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