Each civilization has its own circumstantial features. It bears the right marks and identifying marks. It is done by those who are, as it were, professionally struggling to admit these qualities and most importantly: their interpretation. I will immediately point out that in my opinion there is no civilization better or worse.
The fact that any have been successful, while others have not – does not mean that they can be placed in a series like athletes. Moreover, they are not eternal. Sooner or later, they disappear, disintegrating in the next ones that come after them. They are besides powerfully linked to political power and to history. They have many distinguishing properties for them. For Latin civilization it is, among another things, literary creativity and reading. Yes, various writings, starting with the proclamation of rulers, and ending with lyrics, have always been cultivated everywhere, but in the European case there is more. In this cultural circle, without writing, there would be no our civilization! It's completely out of the question. So what is the phenomenon? The first concrete sign: fundamental founding works, Homer, Virgil and those who imitated them. Although spiritually permeated, they are of a character, secular today. Everywhere else is usually different. The Muslims have only the Quran, the Hindus have their half fairy tale books, the Jews of the Talmud. Asian cases are a small more complicated, but besides Buddhism, and Chinese Taoism are doctrines of spiritual mostly nature.
The second crucial feature is the exclusivity and elite of all others, however, erstwhile the western area is characterized by a certain populace. The availability of these – let us call them so – creative acts for a comparatively wider audience. This ellipse kept expanding. And it's called a reading culture in this text. It is that between the recipient of the elite spheres and the common one, the difference in knowing the content is not as large as elsewhere. Furthermore, it has been highly secularized from the very beginning, while in the civilizations already mentioned, it is closely associated with individual religions. And for example: the common foundation of the religion of the pope and the simplest Catholic believer, in the outermost parish, is much larger than, for example, the 1 connecting the Tibetan Lama and the private group of believers. To conclude, from this description 1 can draw this basic thought: our European civilization is so so dramatically secularized and anti-religious. The origin is very utmost individualism. In addition, he was subjected to various Protestant rituals in which salvation took on a very individual character. Hence only 1 step to political atheism. And so the Latin civilization is coming to an end!
Antoni Koniuszewski
Think Poland, No. 31-32 (3-10.08.201025)
