Saturday, March 18, 2017

Finding the Links to the Peoples Who Made Us What We Are

Yesterday was revelatory in watching the history of the Dark Ages since that made clear some of the influences on England and Western culture as a whole through the period plus it revealed where these influences originated.  (Ithaka:  Exceptional View of the Dark Ages from the History Channel)

The Who sang many times about "Who Are You?" but people still don't know and one example was when Brits were mocking krautrock when, in fact, Brits are Krauts due to heavy influence from Germanic tribes (e.g. Angles, Saxons).


There was a huge chunk of that influence yesterday in clarifying the much larger role of the Franks in European history up until the Norman Conquest and I still need to read / watch videos further to discover why Britain didn't end up French as a result of that.  The Germanic tribes came after by about three to four hundred years, I believe, and they wound up having a profound influence all the way through to America today.

That gap needs to be explained and I've got a time sync problem since the Romans were in Britain until, I think, about the Fourth Century but that term may be used indiscriminately regarding the first and second.  The first was the original Roman Empire with Caesar and all the lads; the second was the reunified Roman Empire which was really Frankish under Charlemagne.  If my guess is correct then it's the Frankish Roman Empire which was in Britain and the same one which Boadicea / Boudika, Queen of the Iceni, slaughtered but was subsequently slaughtered back after they regrouped.


I don't believe there's need to justify this approach when the American Midwest is loaded with Germans and the influences of that culture.  Germany has easily been the most dominating force in America after the English root ... which was also heavily-influenced.  Cincinnati remains heavily Germanic to this day and they delight in it although Cincinnati did its best for food when it looked to the Greeks (e.g. Skyline Chili).

In radical contrast, the most successful restaurants in this heavily-Germanic town are French.  The Maisonette and Pigall's were two five-star French restaurants in which the city took great pride.  Maybe it was the only city in the country which had two five stars at the same time?

Note:  Mystery Lady and I did try that for size once or twice but that's got to be one of the most uncomfortable experiences life has to offer the Silas.  I felt like a catfish trying to run at the damn Kentucky Derby, fer chrissakes.  Some really dig that high life but, man, I ain't the one (larfs).


There's kozmik fascination in this for me because it's indisputably that which made us what we are.  We had almost no connection with the Russian nor Asiatic tribes but we did on this side of the world. Similar flows of movement I'm sure exist within those realms but I have not studied them since the motivation is not the same.

Note:  that needs more study regarding Mongol invasions and how much influence that culture delivered.


People talk of roots sometimes and the ones I'm chasing should go back all the way to the Garden of Eden, right?

If you were really, really good enough then it should be possible to trace the genealogy all the way back.  I know some claim that and, sure, it's a giggle but you could do it if you had all the information.

There's no intention to prove the existence of the Garden of Eden beyond a metaphor and maybe the nearest physical representation is the Olduvai Gorge where the Leakeys dug up so many of our oldest ancestors.  If we had all the information then we should be able to trace the bloodline all the way back.

Ed:  if you dig for roots any deeper then you should come out the other side of the Earth!

Negatory on that since digging deep enough means we should run into roots coming down from the other side of the Earth and then we have hit the foundation from whence it all began.  The only other direction leads to monkeys.


I had a book at one time and it was too big to travel well so it's gone now but it was a global timeline of history all the way back to being slime molds or some such.  The genius in it is there were one sentence snapshots from around the world at each major time break from then to present.  For example, it would show the Mayans were in their heyday somewhere around the peak of Charlemagne's reunified Roman Empire.

Note:  that's off the top of my head but I think it's generally accurate.  The point is the book would resolve matters like that instantly.  Let's see, in the Year 1000, this was happening and pop, pop, pop, I could see it around the world.  Other than a book of Dali's paintings, there are few books better suited to stoners.


This may be boring people so extremely their eyes will never have the capability to shed another tear but you made it this far into the article so there must be some kind of simpatico.  I've been picking up bits and pieces of the story through my life from different views and it's starting to gel quite nicely.

Byrne:  you're still trying to make sense!

That's the hell of it, mate.  Some of it actually does make sense.

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