Posted on 06/01/2021 8:10:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
No, this isn’t a joke.
Edward Luttwak, the distinguished Israeli-American strategist and public intellectual, tweeted the following this morning:
11 Chinese universities teach Greek and Latin. Another 20 seek staff to so as well. Back in the US, the Princeton CLASSICS department has just eliminated the Latin or Greek requirement “to address systemic racism”. Truly racist say I. Why not just end it ? Jobs await in 中国
The Chinese characters at the end mean “Middle Kingdom.”
Princeton created an uproar by ditching the requirement for classics majors to learn Greek or Latin. That shouldn’t be a surprise: In 2017 Harvard eliminated the music theory requirement for music majors. Music theory is to music what grammar and vocabulary are to language.
In China, meanwhile, up to 100 million children study piano, not counting orchestral instruments. Classical music thrives in Japan and South Korea as well as China, where aspiring youngsters and their parents have embraced the most characteristically Western art form. As Luttwak observes, it isn’t just music: Chinese universities are building up their classics departments.
Perhaps the most astonishing thing is China’s enormous interest in Western philosophy. Peking University is China’s Harvard, and its undergraduate philosophy syllabus puts every American university to shame. There are two courses on Aristotle, three on Plato, four on Kant and five on Hegel, three on Nietzsche, two on set theory, and twenty-two (no typo) on logic. Of course, there are also courses on Chinese philosophy, and a bunch on Marxism.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
China offers its undergraduates a deep dive into the Western mind–Greek, Latin, and Continental European (although there also are a couple of offerings on John Rawls). Why? China appreciates Western creativity and wants to learn the trick. China’s hierarchical society doesn’t foster creativity (that is, tolerate the eccentrics and oddballs who discover things like General Relativity) as well as the West, to be sure. But learning the philosophy and music of the West is the next best thing.
It is called ‘know your enemy’.
Luttwak! Excellent writer. Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire...Strategy: the Logic of War and Peace...both in my library.
RE: It is called ‘know your enemy’.
Yep, in the meantime, our universities are busy trashing our heritage and ADMIRING the enemy.
Under Mao Tse Tung, China had a “cultural revolution” that destroyed its universities and sent academics (and many others) into exile to “learn from the peasants” in remote villages).
Now WE are having our own cultural revolution, as a Chinese acquaintance taunted me, complete with “struggle sessions” and “criticism and self-criticism” over supposed systemic racism. We are actually EMULATING what they did.
The irony is - As we burn down our own culture, China may become the last refuge of classical philology, Western philosophy, and classical music.
As long as the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church requires their priests to learn Latin/Greek, I would say that would keep the Classics alive. Just like during the Medieval Times.
Eh we got ghetto rap.
Oh why not?
The former USSR has a greater degree of moral freedom than the USA.
Anything is possible.
Yep, and the Grammys and Billboard celebrate it now.
WAP cannot be played on radio uncensored yet there it was getting recognized.
Adults only party records go back to the 1920s and 30s (even Sons the Pioneers made one) but they never were celebrated by the music industry. Blowfly and Rudy Ray Moore will never get their awards for inspiring generations of rappers.
And “new artist of the year 2020” was killed in February 2020 so he is NOT going to show much promise as a new artist who will grow and only get better.
Time was the industry suits pulled out of “punk” when the Sex Pistols self-destructed after 1 album (band broke up, murder, suicide).
Now the industry WANTS immortal (and eternally young) artists who’s catalogs they can sell for generations (it seems those around Amy Winehouse TRIED to push her over the edge and celebrate her life as a trainwreck).
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...the Princeton CLASSICS department has just eliminated the Latin or Greek requirement “to address systemic racism”... Peking University is China’s Harvard, and its undergraduate philosophy syllabus puts every American university to shame. There are two courses on Aristotle, three on Plato, four on Kant and five on Hegel, three on Nietzsche, two on set theory, and twenty-two (no typo) on logic. Of course, there are also courses on Chinese philosophy, and a bunch on Marxism.
(have ping list, will ping later)
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