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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 10. September 20th, 1949

"Not a Wedding-Cake"

"Not a Wedding-Cake"

What is this "western culture" of ours? At the much-debated Peace Congress in Paris last April, the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg (who has the excellent qualification of having been banned by hte Nazis) spoke very forcibly on this question:

"The men who are plotting a new war are only too ready to talk of culture. According to them, they are compelled to defend "Western Culture' against the East. This, of course, is a plagiary, and if Goeb-bels had not poisoned himself, he might have demanded royalties for the performance of his act by the 'Atlantic' virtuosos. Who is supposed to represent 'Western Culture'? The Ku Klux Kiansmen of Alabama, Yaicin the Turk, Iise Koch, the Japanese Samurai, the slaveowners of Johannesburg, King Abdullah, Hitler's Munich friends, the big businessmen of Seoul, Chiang Kai-shek, Mr. FarneU Thomas, and, of course. Sir Victor Kravchenko.

"From whom are the aforementioned gentlemen to protect "Western Culture'? From the 'East.' And with the 'East' are classed Louis Aragon and Pablo Neruda, Abbe Soulier and the Dean of Canterbury, J. B. S. Haldane and the workers of the Paris suburbs, the Mayor of Florence and Howard Fast. Picasso and Thomas Mann, Joliot-Curle and the citizens of Oradour-sur-Glane.

"Those that talk most about defending 'Western Culture' are the American upstarts. They in general have not grown to an understanding of culture. They may discuss what will be left of the Louvre after the atom bomb has finished with it, they may even dream of acquiring the Louvre, but as for understanding what the Louvre signifies—no, they haven't grown to that. Let them think of their age and be modest, let them stand with uncovered head before the Acropolis, before the Capitol, before St. Sophia of Kiev, before Chartres. Culture is not a wedding-cake on the table of a Mississippi planted; culture cannot be cut into slices. You may draw up any diplomatic document you like, and proclaim Italy an Atlantic country, but you cannot proclaim the Kleagle of Atlanta and the members of the Un-American Activities Committee to be representatives of culture—Western or Eastern, Northern or Southern.

"The sources of our civilization go back to ancient Greece. Myths, knowledge and aesthetic standards came from there to Italy via ancient Rome, and to Russia via Byzantium. Italy gave the world Cimabue and Giotto; Russia gave it Andrei Rub-lev. World culture is not Berlin; you cannot cleave it in two.