The Lesson of 'Civilisation'

  I’VE BEEN RE-WATCHING CIVILISATION, a series of TV programs narrated by the late Kenneth Clark. He was British, hence the use of ‘s’ rather than our American ‘z’.

    The series first aired in Great Britain in 1969, the same year I left Fowlerville High with a diploma in my hand and a head full of high hopes. The programs were later broadcast on American public television in the 1970s, which is where and when I first viewed them.

    Clark also produced a book of the same title as an accompaniment to his documentary. Years ago, after seeing the shows, I purchased a copy, read it, and from time to time have returned to its pages for reference and research or simple enjoyment.

    A more appropriate title would probably have been ‘The History of Western Civilisation’ since that was the main focus or more specifically ‘The History of Western Civilisation as Reflected in its Art’ since art was Clark’s field of expertise.  

   Still, using the abbreviated title seems fair enough; the word art, after all, is not a honey that draws many flies. To his credit, Clark did not entirely deceive. He told viewers as well as readers at the very start of his chronicle that this was not so much an examination of great deeds and notable historical events or of literature and philosophical notions (important as they are to the history and in providing proper context), but rather of buildings, sculpture, paintings, and religious art and what they symbolized and what they told of the time and place that inspired their creation.

   It was these works of art that he was referring to when he posed the question What is civilization? and replied: “I don’t know. I can’t define it in abstract terms. But I think I can recognize it when I see it.”

    Clark then used 13 episodes to offer examples and provide a more informed insight. In explaining why and what he regarded as examples or expressions of civilisation, he noted early on that even the most primitive of societies in the past have had a culture and created art and artifacts (works of creation, if you will) that were not only functional, but to our modern eyes are considered vibrant and beautiful. Even so, he did not feel that such societies met the criteria of what constitutes civilization.

    In addition, he made the point that a society or a time period can be “civilized,” fitting the definition found in the dictionary, but not reaching the same heights as other societies did in other time periods.

   BY CLARK’S ACCOUNT AND THAT OF MOST OTHER HISTORIANS PAST AND PRESENT, the genesis of what became Western Civilization occurred in ancient Greek, among those people who inhabited city-states found along the northern shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea from Sicily to Asia Minor as well as in the interior of the Greek peninsula.    

    In talking about this  society and its culture—how it evolved and the great influence  it exerted and still exerts--Clark noted that “at certain epochs man has felt conscious of something about himself—body and spirit—which was outside the day-to-day struggle for existence and the night-to-night struggle with fear; and he has felt the need to develop these qualities of thought and feeling so that they might approach as nearly as possible to an ideal of perfection—reason, justice, physical beauty, all of them in equilibrium.”

    Men, and the society they inhabited, have accomplished this urge, he said, through various means, including myths, dance and song, systems of philosophy, and the art and architecture that is created—each and all an attempt to impose order and an explanation on the visible world. Clark called these creations “the children of man’s imagination.”

    The history of Western Civilization, dating back to those Greek city-states of the 6^th century BC and continuing on through to our modern era, is a diverse chronology. It’s both a march of progress and a series of ebbs and flows.

     The time line includes, but is not limited to, the Roman Empire, the ensuing Dark Age of barbarian invasions when the Greek and Roman heritage nearly disappeared, the rise of Islam and its impact, the Christian Church’s temporal power and grandeur during the Medieval Period, the Crusades, the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Age of Exploration, the rise of the merchant class through colonial trade, the Age of Reason, and the impact of scientific discovery.

    In making his examination, Clark contended that the advances, particularly the great leaps forward, usually came during times of internationalism when the human spirit expanded beyond the previous confinements of cultural and social orthodoxy and taboos, when new ideas and sources of knowledge were embraced, when human activity was marked by confidence and a strength of will and intellect, and when people as well as goods and services flowed more freely back and forth across boundaries.

   He added that, from an historical perspective, two of the ingredients that have been evident during those periods of advancement have been stability and a sense of permanence. The irony is that during a few periods of our history, military success and empire-building helped bring about that stability and sense of permanence, mainly because it brought about a period of peace and economic prosperity. The more common outcome of the many wars that have littered Europe’s past has been upheaval and destruction. Art and other cultural accomplishments may have still occurred, but they did not necessarily represented symbols of civilization.

   So what were these symbols that Clark uses to illustrate his point? Well, they include the Parthenon of Athens, the statue of Apollo, the aqueducts of the Roman Empire, the Gothic cathedrals, the many ornate religious carvings and murals found in medieval churches, and the paintings of such masters as Raphael and Van Gogh. They are a few of the more famous examples of art and architecture that were created during these periods of advancement. In human form, they include such luminaries as Virgil, Charlemagne, Leonardo Da Vinci, Voltaire, Beethoven, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.

    The times of stagnation, even retreat—Clark stated—have come when societies and their inhabitants turned inward, became protective or fearful (although they may have done so with good reason), or when they became bored and lacked energy, when the larger vision gave way to a more parochial view, or when they concerned themselves mainly with the daily struggle or short-term goals as opposed to embracing or a longer view of their and life’s potential.

   Of course the upheavals of wars, invasions, pestilence, famine, and natural disaster have also played their part in causing the stagnation or retreat.

   During these times, as Clark’s history shows, art did not stop being created, artistic expression did not cease, books were still written, paintings still painted, music still composed, and discoveries still made, but the energy and robustness was not as evident. And the freedom to create and explore beyond the established social and religious norms was curtailed or suppressed. Nevertheless, the creations still serve as symbols of their time and place.

   Another of the points that Clark made was that civilization might seem enduring and inevitable but, as past events have shown, it can fall victim to the low tides of human activity and prevailing opinion.

    You don’t have to go too far back in time to see the accuracy of this assessment. The 20^th century—marked by brutal wars, holocausts, the tyranny of police states, religious and racial persecution, and political and artistic repression—is evidence to how quickly situations can erode and the amenities of life wash away—of how the flow of civilized behaviors and the creativity of the human spirit can suddenly be put at risk and even begin to ebb.

    The social fabric, the permanence and stability we take for granted, can rip apart suddenly, or (just as likely) weaken from a slow fraying—a deterioration that can go unnoticed.  

    But even when this has happened, even at the worse moments, better instincts have brought us back. The lesson (and hope) of Civilisation is that despite this fragility, despite the ripping apart or the slow fraying that has occurred from time to time during our long history, civilization has been rewoven.

    That legacy ought to give us the confidence as well as the strength of will and intellect to enhance what we’ve inherited and to leave our own creations—the children of our imagination.