Week 3

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You are currently viewing a revision titled "Week 3", saved on September 15, 2020 at 11:40 am by Shai Fain (Gently/)
Title
Week 3
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So pleasantly naive and culture oriented the zygote was. Alas, it all ended in 1939 with WWII decimating Europe and hindering any cultural developments, to say the least. But, as jaded as one can be with the world’s affairs (mostly today), Greenhalgh’s Ephemeral Vistas is undeniably pensive vista into the state of cultural expansion pertaining to the era between 1851 and 1939. In contrast to cultural advances that are provided to the tip of our fingers these days, one clearly imagine the author’s vivid descriptions of the international exhibition held in small, bristling city centers surrounded by gardens and masses of admiring indigenous. The Great Exhibition, was held in a building stretches over nineteen acres (indeed a “criminal waste”) eventually created the golden standard for exhibiting categories i.e., manufactures, machinery, raw material, and fine arts (12). Nonetheless, more than peace or education, as the author states, the objective morphed from culture to trade implying the emergence of the capitalistic system in western society pertaining, in this case, to France, America, and Great Britain. Perhaps this explains the discord the three had during the Second World War, but anecdotes aside, noticeably trade became the prevalent capitalistic method of generating and dominating markets (22). The reading glaringly points that world’s fairs transformed to unsullied economical endeavors rather than cultural driven interests. Well, at least as it is concerning the organizing governments. An example for this is found in Findling’s article Exposition Universelle, which seems to be the beginning of an egotistical rather than cultural contest. It is bewildering that countries, namely their citizens, are so gullibly influenced by one person or small group, usually by elitist minority. Emperor Napoleon is an exemplifier for this disturbing side of human’s nature in trying to claim fame for his ambition to surpass the prior exhibitions.
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September 15, 2020 at 3:40 pm Shai Fain (Gently/)
September 15, 2020 at 3:39 pm Shai Fain (Gently/)