Balkan spirit

Romania
December 26, 2012 8:34am CST
I am reading right now "Report to El Greco" by Nikos Kazantzakis and I feel so deep the spirit of the Balkans. His love for Crete and for Greece, described so lyrical, just created a lot of emotions inside of me. I also define myself as a Balkan, living in Romania, and I am very proud about this. I wonder if you agree with this... If you carefully look into the culture of this region, you can see it has more similitudes with oriental cultural, than with the Western European one. All that love of nature, of life, of divinity, the existentialism approach of life in general. The easiness of finding pleasure in all sort of activities and even in suffering. The knowledge the humans don't have so much power, their lives are in God's hands. etc. etc. But if this is true, if the Byzantine legacy of the Balkan region situates its culture kind of in the same area as the Oriental one (I am aware that are also a lot of differences in essence)... Why Western Europeans look with admiration and with a bit of feeling of inferiority to the Orient, but with disgust to the Balkans?
1 person likes this
2 responses
maximax8
@maximax8 (31042)
• United Kingdom
26 Dec 12
I am English and I live in the United Kingdom. I love traveling to different countries and have been to Eastern Europe and the Orient plus many other places. I visited Romania and Bulgaria in 2006. I went to Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia in 2003. I visited Greece in 1987. I don't look in disgust to the Balkans. I don't feel the Orient is inferior to Western Europe. I hope to visit Eastern Europe again in 2013 beginning with Ukraine in my plans. I also hope to visit Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Albania.
1 person likes this
spicymary
@spicymary (558)
• Romania
26 Dec 12
I may expressed myself wrong. I said I noticed that the Orient is seen as superior in some ways, especially spiritual ways. The pantheism, the free way of seeing sexuality, the multiple gods are values that the western european admire at the Orient. If until recently the trend was to feel that, as a European, you are from the most advanced civilization, now I noticed that the trend is to look with... envy at the oriental civilization (seen as more intimate with humanity and nature). I see it as mostly an intellectual trend (as a specific of the left intelectuallity that is majoritarian in the majority of Western countries, especially France) and there are some authors that also confirm this. My question is, why go and look for this values in the oriental culture, and not in the balkanic one, who is easier to be discovered and more similar. Why Balkans are seen as "our less developed brothers, kind of barbarian"? I'm curious what did you see here and what are your opinions about the culture, the habits, the people... I see that you traveled a lot around, and I assume you had a lot of experiences. :)
suspenseful
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
26 Dec 12
It has to do with the Balkan tribalism. Because of the mountains in that area, it iwas hard to get around and I suppose that each area had to be protected and one had to work hard for their food. Whereas in the East, with the silk road, etc. the Emperor of China could send out troops and they would be there in a heartbeat. And it seems that people seem to forget that the Orient has a lot of decadence. They only see what they want to see, the luxury, etc. I also think that in much of western society, they have driven God out and even though many still believe in Him, they are forbidden from telling others for fear of scorn. I did see several movies shot in the Balkans and each one it was as if it were in another country. So the isolation is there.
1 person likes this