Every city that I have seen in Europe has a church. Not just a church, but a large beautiful cathedral. Churches sing for God. The bells at 5:00 in London rang from Westminster Abbey for at least 5 minutes.It sounded like a grand celebration, like the coming of a new life, or like the feeling you get when work is done. In Paris, chanting in the Notre Dame was the drone that promoted a feeling of calm and silence within me. As Notre Dame prepared for an evening mass the organ introduced a piece of music that rang harmony and dissonance concluding in the center. The common ground to humanity is an underlying belief system. Whether it be taboo, sacred or anything in between. When did God become external? Was God ever internal? How do beliefs of a society affect the structure, laws, environment, and functionality of a group of people?<\/p>\n
To begin this large, broad subject, I will use the Lourve as a way to gain insight. In looking at the Catholic based paintings beginning in the 12th century, capturing Jesus and Mary, there is a clear separation between Holy and unholy. Again and again Jesus is a higher beacon of light while the poor man is on his knees praying. What is odd is that Jesus was also sacrificed because the men in charge thought that they were of higher value and moral.\u00a0 Within the Louvre I also saw a painting of a book burning. There where maps of stars and grids of time on the books. This is very curious to me. I also saw a room dedicated to science in the Louvre. There were telescopes, globes, maps, compasses, and various star charting tools. Astronomy is an ancient art. There was a room dedicated to the Kings, Architects, artists and oddly all 12 signs of the zodiac as well. With the book burning and banning of other gods during the 12th century I am very surprised that the zodiac was largely displayed. The French invaded Egypt.\u00a0 Egypt was invaded for resources, but the French army surrendered in Cairo June 18, 1801. I can see that each country in Europe has shifted boarders and boundaries many times. Each country needs to protect itself and maintain balance of resources. This is a complicated task when some people believe that it is their divine right to slave others to get what they need. This is why religion is important. Religion is tied with the government and government is tied with regulation. Depending on the time period and version of the bible there are different moral codes about slavery, war, abuse, and ownership of the land. These are the concepts that shape the actions of the leaders.<\/p>\n
Bringing the past into the current. Fast forward. It is 2015. It is the corporations job to make profit for themselves. It is the governments job to regulate that the profit of the corporation is not taking away from the lively hood of the people of their country. In America the Media is basically owned by 3 corporations that are the stem to a large umbrella of smaller businesses. This means that 3 corporations are teaching America what they know. Americas military budget is 50x larger than any other country combined. To me, the governments job is to check and balance powers. To me it seems that less money could be spent on nuclear bombs. And more knowledge could be spread about the amazingness of how other countries, such as Germany, the UK and France are ran. However, if other options are known by the majority of tax payers than people would want change, and when they don’t know what they don’t have, there isn’t much of a problem, and the leaders at hand have more control.<\/p>\n
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This ties into music because it is from the repression of education, voices, and philosophies that change the power at hand that creates enough passion to make music, revolutionary music. This ties into religion because underneath war is a belief system that justifies stealing from another country. Underneath religion is a belief that justifies the creation of boundaries to cut off another country from entering and working under a different monetary system. With the boundaries at hand it is easy for a country to lose money because of dollar value differences. It is also unfair to underpay people who are from a place where their dollar is less. For instance Norway has a very strong dollar that can’t compete with American dollars. One meal at the airport was 28$. If I made money in Norway and transferred those dollars to American, I would have a lot more money, and Norway would be losing those dollars from their monetary system. So checks and balances is the Governments job. There are a lot of governments, and a lot of religions. There are a lot of boarders. The more you know the less you know with this kind of a system.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, understanding the history of Europe could take a lifetime. At least I am beginning now. By learning about the patterns of the past, we can prevent the same mistakes in the future. By trying something new, we can at least make new mistakes for the next generations to learn from. This is evolution. We have came a long way. At least we aren’t burning books, witches and beheading queens to marry another.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.history.com\/news\/six-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-louvre<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.france.fr\/en\/outstanding-men-and-women\/philip-ii-augustus-1165-1223.html<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.historylines.net\/history\/french\/louvre.html<\/p>\n
http:\/\/countrystudies.us\/egypt\/20.htm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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