Here is a very interesting and inspiring docuмentary made by an Australian man. He travelled for over three years on horseback from Karakorum to the Danube River in Hungary, living in a tent and relying on nomadic hospitality. He wanted to enter into the mindset of a nomad in order to understand sedentary life from their perspective. Amazing, really. He is apparently some kind of Protestant romantic, unfortunately, such that he is okay praying with members of just about every religion. On the other hand, if you can look past this, I think that the docuмentary is fertile soil for a very fruitful discussion on cities, classes, the social order, and so forth.
Specifically, I hope to start a discussion analysing how this docuмentary (which consists of six 30-minute episodes) relates to the desire of the monastics to remove themselves from the corruption of cities and how we could relate this quest to Ibn Khaldun's historical commentary on the corrupting effect of cities on North African rulers. How and why do cities corrupt, if they do ? How could Catholics be or were Catholics at some point insulated from this corrupting effect of urban life, and what would be or were the ramifications ? How does this relate to St Pius X's desire for the Third Orders to expand into a much larger percentage of Catholics' daily lives, especially insofar as this more deeply integrates the faithful into the liturgical life of the Church ?
In former generations, there were common grazing lands protected by the crowns of various countries throughout Europe, but especially the Mediterranean. Grazing rights would be awarded to the owners of large herds, whose hired shepherds would live with the herds during the summer months when they would be brought into cool mountain pastures. Small houses would be built in the mountains for these shepherds, and the semi-nomadic life that they led was not too dissimilar from that of Silk Road traders or grazers on the so-called "Open Range" in North America. Cossacks in the steppe are an example of how semi-nomadism can be consistent with the life of a Christian warrior (though the Cossacks were then, as now, mostly Eastern schismatics). Full nomadism seems to involve larger open grasslands or boreal forests such that a wife and children can be brought along during the seasonal migrations and ownership of the herds can be maintained by the grazers themselves. And let's not forget the reindeer herders of Siberia and Lappland.
Are there any lessons that could be learned from investigating these matters ? Please watch the docuмentary, think about these things, and tell me your thoughts. Personally, I find the life of the Mongolian nomads to be earthy, rich, and beautiful (speaking in terms of natural virtue, of course). I think we should be willing to think very big and creative thoughts that draw deeply on diverse historical precedents, since our age is so radically corrupt and degenerate. Who knows what will be left after God's hand of chastisement reaches this world, and how total should the restoration of the natural order and the permeation of ancient wisdom be ? I advise that we should be flexible in our assimilation of advantageous insights from the natural light of reason. After all, for those of you readers who might see multiculturalism or whatever in my post,
of the steppe were [url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195144139/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0195144139&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwchanco-20 ancient Proto-Indo-Europeans descending only a few (or less ?) generations from Japheth, son of Noe, himself.
DISCLAIMER : THIS IS A REALISTIC TRIP ACROSS THE POST-SOVIET WORLD. NOT ALL SCENES ARE APPROPRIATE FOR MIXED COMPANY; SOME SCENES SHOW GRAVE IMMODESTY (washing, shirtless men, prostitutes) OR CONDONE IMMORALITY (drunkenness, for instance) OR COULD BE DISTURBING.
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Topic: The Far East (Read 10836 times)