ThinkingWest @thinkingwest Twitter profile

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ThinkingWest

20 hours

“Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder,” according to 20th-century historian Arnold Toynbee. He claimed every great culture collapses internally due to a divergence in values between the ruling class and the common people…🧵

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ThinkingWest

@thinkingwest

22 days

A democracy can only last 200 years. At least, that’s according to 18th-century historian Alexander Tytler. He claimed democracies always follow a predictable pattern and are doomed to end in servitude…🧵

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1 month

Kenneth Clark lamented that civilization was a fragile thing. He observed three “enemies” that could topple even the mightiest cultures—what are they?🧵

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2 months

"Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage." C.S. Lewis

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7 months

@lporiginalg Someone failed geography class

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15 days

A road might seem like a simple thing... But it was mastery of road construction that made Rome the most connected—and powerful—empire in the ancient world. Roman roads were engineering marvels in their own right 🧵 (thread)

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3 months

“No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.” Plato

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29 days

Among the most visible reminders of Rome's storied hegemony are its aqueducts. These engineering marvels channeled the lifeblood of civilization for near a millennia. Here’s how they worked…🧵

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ThinkingWest

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10 days

Modern man has a severe case of amnesia—he’s forgotten the immense wisdom of the past. Luckily, it can be rediscovered through great literature. 12 old books that will make you wiser… 🧵(thread)

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ThinkingWest

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2 months

If you like Homer, Plato, or Cicero, you can thank a monk. More so than on any battlefield, Western civilization was safeguarded within the quiet confines of a monastery...🧵

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2 months

There are a lot of misconceptions about feudalism. Rather than a contrived political system, feudalism was really just a series of loyalties. For near a millennia, civilization was held together by the oaths of honorable men...🧵

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ThinkingWest

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2 months

Rome was the preeminent engineering civilization. Its roads, bridges, and aqueducts ensured an unmatched quality of life for its citizens. Yet its greatest engineering feat wasn’t about providing a comfortable life—the Colosseum was built for a dramatic death🧵

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2 months

Art Deco is the incarnation of civilizational energy—the spirit of Achilles and Tesla in architectural form. The ultimate style for high civilization...

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2 months

Great literature usually doesn’t come to mind when imagining the “dark ages.” But some of the greatest tales that still shape our culture come from the medieval period. Here are 10 of the best 🧵

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24 days

The "science vs religion" dichotomy is false. In fact, some of the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries were made by Catholic clergy. Here are the top 5 scientific breakthroughs made by priests…🧵 (thread)

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19 days

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Inquisition. Most people today view it as a medieval witch hunt spurred on by dark age superstition—but its initial intentions weren't so misguided…🧵

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6 months

@Culture_Crit The inside is equally as magnificent. Goes to show “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” The modern predicament tends to be lack of will.

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2 months

The Ancient Greeks basically invented Western philosophy. 2500 years on and we’re still studying their ideas. Here are 10 Greek philosophers you need to know🧵

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4 months

@lporiginalg “Gwen the milkmaid” She needs to just stay off the internet

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6 months

@disclosetv Pure emotional manipulation

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6 months

@lporiginalg Those in glass houses should not throw stones

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8 days

Alfred the Great believed he was given divine authority to rule his kingdom. This was not an excuse to abuse his power though. Rather, he saw it as a responsibility to care for his people…🧵

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7 months

@lporiginalg Maybe doing absolutely anything for money isn’t a good thing

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8 months

@lporiginalg

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17 days

The medieval period was full of theological literature. Far from a dark age, it gave us some of the most intellectually stimulating Christian works. 10 great Christian texts from the middle ages 🧵 (thread)

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3 months

"Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes, fails to remember and honor them." Marcus Tullius Cicero

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22 days

The stages are as follows: “From bondage to spiritual faith; spiritual faith to great courage; courage to liberty; liberty to abundance; abundance to selfishness; selfishness to complacency; complacency to apathy; apathy to dependence; dependence back into bondage”

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27 days

“Not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkien

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3 months

Gothic cathedrals were the height of medieval architecture—but how did they build these jaw-dropping structures with only rudimentary tools? Here's the step-by-step process of building a gothic cathedral🧵

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21 days

"Honor is simply the morality of superior men." H. L. Mencken

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22 days

A pure democracy was a “chimera” or a “utopian theory”—it never existed, and never could exist because a democracy relied on the virtue of its citizens to function properly. Basically, without a perfect citizenry a democracy devolves into a worse form of government.

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12 days

Historian Will Durant claimed a culture’s success was intrinsically tied to its religiosity. Strong nations were born out of faithful people, but when religion dwindled, things started to fall apart...🧵

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1 month

“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” St. Francis Of Assisi

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5 months

@lporiginalg Brought to you by public education

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6 months

@lporiginalg Turns out actual science disagrees with the narrative

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22 days

Tytler writes: “the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship”

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2 months

Before movies or novels, epic poetry was the preferred way of telling a riveting story. The most extraordinary tales were passed on in the form of meter and rhyme. Here are 15 of the greatest epic poems🧵

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26 days

Most cultural movements aren’t grass roots—they’re top down. Charlemagne’s cultural rebirth, the “Carolingian renaissance,” proved how real cultural change is planned and executed by society’s elites…🧵

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4 months

@reddit_lies If you have a game plan for divorce then you aren’t all in on marriage.

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22 days

He believed that democracies naturally evolved from initial virtue to eventual corruption and decline. In ancient Greece, for example, he argued that "the patriotic spirit and love of ingenious freedom...became gradually corrupted as the nation advanced in power and splendor."

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4 months

Choose your medieval military order—Who you got?

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22 days

Tytler also noticed some striking similarities about how democracies end. Democracies always collapse in the same way—poor monetary policy.

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5 months

@stillgray These people ruin everything. Can’t even celebrate Christmas without rioting

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8 months

@lporiginalg He says he doesn't blame anyone else for what was done to him as a child -- He's wrong. All the adults that went along with it are 100% to blame. They failed him.

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2 months

“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” J.R.R. Tolkien

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6 months

@reddit_lies Women like this need to realize they’re not the top of the food chain and be grateful when a man steps up.

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3 months

Early Christians had a complete Bible by the 4th century. But that’s not the only thing they were reading to deepen their faith. In the early Church, there were a lot of great books being passed around🧵

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4 months

@Culture_Crit The mother of them all: St. Peter's

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4 months

@reddit_lies They really do just hate Christianity. Has nothing to do with “principles” or freedom.

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22 days

All governments, according to Tytler, actually functioned as either monarchies or oligarchies, regardless of how their leaders were elected. Once a leader is in place, the people must obey. Democracies and republics are no different.

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7 months

@lporiginalg Didn’t realize getting thrown off buildings was safer than an occasional rude comment

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2 months

The entire medieval world—its cathedrals, artwork, and music—was informed by the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. It’s a text that led countless souls to heaven, but it's translator, St. Jerome, first had to experience hell...🧵

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6 days

“Deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.” J.R.R. Tolkien

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23 days

@Culture_Crit Late 1800s/early 1900s was peak civilization

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1 month

@Culture_Crit Turn-of-the-century America was a different planet. When you destroy beauty and replace it with such ugliness, what message does it send to a people? Is it really a wonder that now people where pajamas to the grocery store when they used to where suit and ties?

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3 months

@Culture_Crit We were almost art deco

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1 month

Who were the 5 good emperors? Despite wielding absolute power, they used their authority to maintain peace and stability throughout the Roman empire and ushered in an age of unparalleled cultural heights🧵

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22 days

Voters in democracies were always influenced by the “basest corruption and bribery,” but once leaders were in power, these leaders no longer acted in the interest of the people. The people had to submit to their rule “as if they were under the rule of a monarch"

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1 month

The first enemy is fear: “fear of war, fear of invasion, fear of plague and famine, that make it simply not worthwhile constructing things, or planting trees or even planning next year’s crops. And fear of the supernatural, which means that you daren’t question anything.”

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2 months

There’s a 50-foot-tall dragon statue in Kamenka, Russia that breathes real fire. A likeness of the region’s iconic folk villain, it’s one of countless dragon depictions around the world. Nearly every culture has dragons—why?

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22 days

Republics also had this problem, and people that disillusioned themselves into envisioning a well-functioning republic were imagining “a republic not of men, but of angels."

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1 month

Though Greece may have birthed Western philosophy, Rome revitalized it. Here are the 10 greatest Roman philosophers that any true fan of Rome needs to know🧵

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5 months

@creation247 Kind of a W tbh

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6 months

@lporiginalg The powers-at-be don’t like it when AI recognizes a lot of patterns that don’t fit their narrative

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1 month

Finally, a civilization dies with exhaustion—the “feeling of hopelessness which can overtake people even with a high degree of material prosperity.”

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3 months

@Culture_Crit We were once a proper country

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29 days

@Culture_Crit Ugly public art wouldn’t be as big of an issue if it didn’t come out of taxpayers’ wallets. It only adds insult to injury that we’re forced to pay for the desecration of our public spaces. If someone ran a campaign solely based on beautifying public spaces with great art, I’d…

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1 month

The second enemy is a lack of self confidence. Clark saw the late Roman empire as a prime example of a culture that didn’t believe in itself anymore: “The late antique world was full of meaningless rituals, mystery religions, that destroyed self-confidence.”

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1 month

The Roman Empire didn’t fall by itself. Though it faced treachery, financial woes, and moral decay internally, barbarians toppled the destabilized empire and forged a new world from the ashes. Here are the greatest barbarians to terrorize Rome🧵

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22 days

Tytler was a Scottish judge, writer, and Professor of Universal History as well as Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh. After studying dozens of civilizations, he noticed some intriguing patterns…

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4 months

@reddit_lies once you read the last two sentences it all makes sense

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8 months

@ClownWorld_ Woman discovers other countries aren't as degenerate as the US

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1 month

When traditions and rituals lose their connection to what inspired them in the first place, they become the performance art of a dying civilization. Cultures need to believe in something.

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1 month

Decadence, moral degradation, and lack of belief in something greater leave a society questioning the point of it all. An aimlessness pervades society that is often only quenched by civilizational suicide.

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1 month

@reddit_lies “Transethnostate” — they do realize they’d be extinct in one generation right?

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4 months

@disclosetv “Let’s just ban all our political enemies“ is the left’s new modus operandi

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22 days

From democracy to dictatorship seems like a big leap, but Tytler laid out the steps that these civilizations always follow—this is the “Tytler Cycle,” and it lasts about 200 years. Civilizations are broken into a series of stages, with each inevitably leading to the next stage.

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22 days

Tytler claims that it is a nation's wealth that weakens its people: "It is a law of nature to which no experience has ever furnished an exception, that the rising grandeur and opulence of a nation must be balanced by the decline of its heroic virtues"

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1 month

Fear paralyzes a people and stifles adventure, invention, and grand building projects. Fear leads to stagnation.

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8 months

@lporiginalg It is quite the sad situation however, so I wish this young lady and her son the best of luck.

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3 months

Modern flags are boring. Flags reached their peak when they were embossed with lions, griffins, and eagles. Coats of Arms of medieval Europe – which is the best?

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2 months

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." C. S. Lewis

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3 months

@MattWalshBlog Self hatred has got to be one of the most off putting qualities in a person, and we’ve brainwashed an entire generation to hate themselves.

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30 days

“We do not merely study the past: we inherit it, and inheritance brings with it not only the rights of ownership, but the duties of trusteeship…Things fought for and died for should not be idly squandered. For they are the property of others, who are not yet born.” Roger…

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5 months

@RepubSentinel “Michael Cassidy” is an interesting way of spelling legend

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22 days

The lack of virtue within a nation leads to its atomization. Apathy toward one’s fellow man—and the system as a whole—is commonplace. Then, tyrants are allowed to seize control. Which ultimately brings a nation full-circle back to the bondage stage.

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3 months

In 1322 an English knight journeyed to China, following in the footsteps of Marco Polo. His trip, however, involved: -dwarves -dragons -centaurs & more The book he wrote about his incredible trek would make him the most famous man in Europe🧵

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22 days

And through liberty great abundance is attained—a civilization grows wealthy and powerful. Selfishness and complacency are lurking around the corner, though. This is where the decline starts.

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6 months

@reddit_lies Yeah she never heard any of this

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Initially, cultures start out in bondage to superior ones—think America’s colonial past or Israel’s enslavement to Egypt. But after a courageous revolution, liberty is achieved.

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4 months

Everyone’s got a favorite sword — what’s your pick?

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Tyter’s Cycle points toward the inevitability of democracies to devolve into tyrannies, an observation other thinkers like Aristotle pointed out too. But was Tytler’s theory correct? Is democracy doomed to fail after only a couple hundred years? Where are we now in the cycle?

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6 months

@lporiginalg “You will own nothing and like it.” Everything is becoming subscription based.

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7 months

@lporiginalg It’s pretty weird they are trying to normalize cheating during your bachelorette/bachelor party

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4 months

@libsoftiktok Weird that everything logical is due to “colonization”

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Clark tells a story by Greek poet Cavafy, in which he imagines an antique town that waits for barbarians to come and sack the city. After a while, the barbarians move on and the city is spared. But the people are disappointed—destruction would have at least been interesting.

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Clark’s thoughts on civilization should inspire reflection about our own. Does the West believe in its foundational principles, laws, or philosophy? Is the West confident in itself? Or, is it fearful, timid, and exhausted?

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3 months

@EndWokeness Women are more susceptible to emotional manipulation and propaganda and all of our mainstream media is super left wing.

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Ultimately Clark says that flourishing civilizations have two things beyond a base-level of material prosperity: confidence and belief. “confidence in the society in which one lives, belief in its philosophy, belief in its laws, and confidence in one’s own mental powers.”

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3 months

History is best told by those closest to the events, and some of the greatest historical accounts date back to antiquity, where the authors were subjects of history themselves. Here are 10 Great Books of History written by the Ancients 🧵

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7 months

@lporiginalg Everything is now subscription based. “You will own nothing and like it.”

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