User talk:Bambablock

Western world changes[edit]

Hey, I noticed that you have some complaints about the Western world article. Do you have specific changes you'd like to see? I think you might have some fair points, but your methods aren't going to get you anywhere within the Wikipedia bureaucracy. What's your main account? I might be willing to help if you if I agree with your proposal. — Freoh 18:40, 18 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks in advance. My concern as explained throughly since last November is that edits by user Rim sim began on 19 November, were accepted with that bias of "what makes the West is white Christianity". Rim sim's even added about ancient Greco-Roman roots of race (european as opposed to asian) this month; but if so that white christian Europe makes the Western world, how is the Orthodox world supposed to be understood since not certainly Western but "intimately related" at least (per lede's map's description)?

I am sure lede should read more like "what makes the West is white medieval clerical heads who, in collusion with imperial did root the Western world" in religion wars since about the turn of the millennium (by East-West schism of 1054). As this is acknowledged and academic since ever. Bambablock (talk) 06:22, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In my experience, Wikipedia editors tend to be sticklers for the rules, so the most effective way to address systemic bias on Wikipedia is roughly three steps:

Remove content that is unverified, disputed, or opinion stated as fact.
Add verifiable information.
Reorganize the existing information so that it's as clear as possible and so that the lead summarizes the body.

Let's start with step 1. I'm not very well-versed in the literature, so you'll need to help me out. Could you point me to specific sentences in the current version that are problematic? Do you have specific sources you can point me to that explicitly contradict or disagree with the content currently in the article? — Freoh 09:03, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Various central parts of the lede are wrong, and can be compared for changes: how it used to read before the changes since 19 November, and how it reads now on 20 January. Basically, editing made by User:Rim sim split the portion summarizing in the lede the historical perspective, into two different: but describing cultural ancient roots and then describing white colonial practices in national laws of the European Enlightenment and modern-day women's position. Does it add up?

As stated myself at talk pages and at noticeboards, I can agree that "Western world" refers to both Western policies and culture, simply Western civilization I'd say. I can't agree instead, it refers to the latter only (nonetheless there's Western culture to convey exactly that), as instead the lede does convey at present.

Unless I am mistaken then Western world is terminology to describe the geographic extent of Western civilization, which in turn is used to describe Western culture's evolution. Terminology is being misused in context, as Western can refer to multiple concepts. To describe this literacy controversy in simple terms then I think of Western cultural literacy, specifically: it comes from the Eastern Mediterranean which influenced the ancient Greeks and Romans which then spread the latin alphabet, this is Western cultural root of literacy. Ok? Then, am I to read cultural literacy of the Western world comes from,

ancient cultural achievement (Classical Antiquity)
medieval spread of Christianity (Middle Ages)

I believe the former approach is just wrong as ancient culture did evolve into modern, throughout the Middle Ages. Thus it's more correct to understand Western alphabets are rooted in classical ancient times, but Western world's are rooted in christian medieval times, as the Western world was born in christian policies of the medieval roman revival, not in roman policies.

About verifiable sources, I can't find reliable sources explicitly confuting Rim sim's additions. There's a bunch using terminology of "Western civilization", not "Western world", such as Quigley's work from 1979 and cited in the article itself. However, references used to substantiate lede's present version per user Rim sim's contributions are all disproportionately coming from works of historical fiction: and so I don't see the bookselling market more notable than the mere understanding of historical evolution from "Roman" empire to "Holy Roman" empire; from Western (Greek and Latin) Christianity to Western world's (Roman Catholic) Christianity. Bambablock (talk) 11:59, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't fully understand what you're arguing for, and I don't have time to scrutinize the entire article and all of its (too many) sources. I agree that some of this stuff does look like opinion stated as fact, and that content should at least be attributed and balanced with contrasting opinions. If an opinion is held by a lot of sources, then it's harder to argue for its removal unless you have facts to replace it. You would make my job a lot easier if you could give me specific sentence-level changes rather than a wall of text of general criticism of the article as a whole. In particular:

What content is in the lead but not in the body?
Which sentences represent opinions stated as fact?
Which presented opinions are more controversial than the article makes them seem? (with evidence)
Which statements in the article are not explicitly supported by their sources?
Which cited sources are unreliable? (with evidence)

Let's work incrementally, starting small with your least controversial proposal. — Freoh 20:59, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, first point is that the body did already convey Western world is on the extent of Western culture, rather than Western civilization (which does point, indeed, to Western culture).

Better is to read indeed through my sock contributions after 19 November beginning with User:The basis of, at talk page and noticeboards, to understand the controversial ins and outs of contributing to this topic. I neither have much time to challenge this systemic bias. Here's all my sock-puppet contributions which followed my November's IP contributions since the page was protected from being edited by IP users.

Special:Contributions/The basis of, first edit on December 10th, blocked on January 2nd
Special:Contributions/Icedbluemap, first edit on January 4th, blocked on same day
Special:Contributions/InterracialTan, first edit on January 6th, blocked on same day
Special:Contributions/Steven_Wallingford, first edit on January 8th, blocked on same day
Special:Contributions/AlexarcticleUserfriendly first edit on January 9th, blocked on same day
Special:Contributions/Lifesmoving, first edit on January 10th, blocked on same day
Special:Contributions/Iamtoinsistoncemore, first edit on January 11th and blocked on same day
Special:Contributions/PieceTheBeastICanEverImagine, first edit on January 13th and blocked on January 14th

Am mostly sure this is the complete list of sock accounts I used (other than this very one). Bambablock (talk) 03:34, 21 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed today new edits to the lede and the body as well: what I oppose the most is that the page is on culture just as if culture was equivalent with crusade, while even throughly depicting cultural roots as ancient (which it is factual information). The page is all based in this misunderstanding: seems like the West is, the Church of culture for white christians. So it reads overly absurd, if you know about the topic. This is, miseducation at the very least: it's wp:OR, unverified and unreliable, wp:POV. All too wrong, to be like that.

Am convinced it should read more like the West is, Product of Western religious wars, the crusades, and colonialism. And how could it not? The page is now addressed instead like the West is sacred in white culture. Bambablock (talk) 14:12, 22 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Today I noticed other new edits, and again Rim sim added a work aimed at underage students meaning it is not part of institutional education (higher degree, over-18 students). But what is worth underlying is, even if it was aimed at higher degree students, it turns out in noway this source implies that the United States or the West "were envisioned as homelands for whites" so this is aggressive POV pushing on how the Western world emerged. Indeed, they were envisioned, in colonial (religious wars) imperialism, not in white supremacy: values that forged the Western world, were not of white supremacy but of Christian supremacy (colonial imperialism).

They believed God was worth for war, basically, not that their ethnicity was. They're two different notions: one is God, the other ethnicity. Western wars were in the name of God, not in that of white European ethnicity. Bambablock (talk) 17:18, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that that sentence about a "homeland for whites" is problematic. After spending some more time reading the article, I do agree with you that the distinction between the articles Western world, Western civilization, Western culture, and History of Western civilization is more messy than it should be, and I made a proposal for major trimming at the talk page. If other editors agree, then we'd have a stronger case for cutting out a lot of the tangentially-related history. — Freoh 18:26, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I find Rim sim's bias always had an unwarranted "spin" of admiration of ancient white ethnicity, as added on 19 November. Am very sure instead that the West is product of Western civilization's expansion on the basis of Christian European ethnicity, rather than of White European ethnicity. Incorrect too, that the same work noted above aimed at underage students reports a quote on 1400s intellectuals of the christian Renaissance who did not define the West as we define it today, within civilization born in the crusades. Instead they did as within civilization born in "christianity and ancient philosophy". Makes me think: does it mean we today define the West as who historically defined it first, and within ethnical rather than christian supremacy? Isn't that quote example of "primary source" anyway? Anyway.

Very good luck to the proposal. Bambablock (talk) 07:44, 24 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As a final scrutiny against ultraconservative and reactionary hidebound (diehard) revisionism, I would suggest adding to lede eventually, that the Western world is currently interpreted through the correlated events unfolded in the twentieth century, particularly the development of Jewish genocide (after all, Judaism is the basis of Christianity) and the Atomic Age. Bambablock (talk) 19:24, 24 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And notable would be eventually, to report the Catholic–Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965 as well in lede lifting 1054's mutual excommunication which, by 1991's Warsaw pact dissolution must've contributed to the end of the first east-west Cold War. Bambablock (talk) 20:25, 24 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Again, I would understand your ideas better if you made specific requests (with citations) rather than general criticism. I'm currently proposing a large-scale change, but I'm trying to be reasonably specific about it. Is there information in the article that's backed only by primary sources? — Freoh 23:24, 24 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think you're doing well. I don't read through all of the citations added by Rim sim and page's revision history ad I used to, as I believe I've discussed with user enough in November and December and understood the issue already. Important I believe, is the disagreement of, Religion or War, which ultraconservative views based in Eurocentrism prefer to interpret as unrelated (to one another) when in fact that's the very Western world's infancy.

Religion (roman catholicism) and Imperialism (european colonialism) unrelated to one another, while in fact they are exactly Western world's infancy. The page is addressed very originally like coming from considering these two concepts unrelated to one another, and such produces Rim sim's elaborated Western unclear narrative of "ancient culture equivalent with medieval crusade". Instead, medieval crusading is the very Western world's historical inception.

As well, Rim sim tends to mix in notions of North-South divide, as if "West-East" was not what the page was about in the first place: North-South divide is about ethnical/racial divide, but the Western world is about Western civilization's geographical evolution (political and sociocultural) in the first place. I did write in previous weeks somewhere that it should read more like it's born as the Western world from a complicity between imperial (North European) and religious (Mediterranean) authorities. Then, we could talk forever about why this complicity it is preferred not to identify it with the German Holy Roman Empire. What's important indeed, arguably it's not that there was an empire, but that there was a medieval complicity between an empire and a clergy. And how could it be not? Bambablock (talk) 08:08, 25 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Reading the page today January 26th, it reads more and more paradoxically as the West is the Church of War culture. It is so made up in some colorful misunderstanding of "clergy owned by the empire", when in fact the medieval Clergy operated for centuries under full imperial allegiance: what do we think the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment were about? They were about opposing both the authorities of "Empire and Clergy".

The policy-making, governance skills of the Medieval Clergy, which developed under the Holy Roman Empire, is the philosophy and original significance of Western world's origin, not ancient Greco-Roman philosophy.

Modern-day Western world encompasses much of the nations and states where civilization or culture is considered as Western^[1]^[2]^[3]—the roots of which some Westerners trace back to the Greco-Roman world.^[4]^[5]

Still sorry for not being much active, but I am going to argue that foundation is the articulation used by the author studying religions (including Christianity then): Side by side with Christianity, the classical Greco-Roman world forms the sound foundation of Western civilization. Greek philosophy is also the origin for the methods and contents of the philosophical thought and theological investigation in Islam and Judaism.

This work itself here, is not a reliable source to state "Modern-day Western world encompasses much of the nations and states where civilization or culture is considered as Western[1][2][3]—the roots of which some Westerners trace back to the Greco-Roman world." And how could the author have stated, that Western civilization or culture anyway, is equivalent to Western world (rather than the Western crusade is)? The sourcing work lacks a direct correlation with "Western world".

I find this dispute objectively sickening then.

There should be some recognition of the clerical philosophy of the medieval age to actually move the page forward, not Greek philosophy which is instead the origin of Western culture (founded in the Ancient Near East), not of the Western world. I'm beginning to understand that the notion of the religious ordering of (EU) Catholic Secular clergy being less involved "in the world", may be supportive of the present Eurocentric bias at the page. Please revise. About Herodotus, how can we prefer the side-notion that the tyre developed from the wheel, instead of the main-notion that the Car replaced the Horse car? Bambablock (talk) 09:23, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Again, I think you'll be more effective if you keep your comments focused and back up your arguments with citations. In your wall of text above, I'm having trouble picking out which information is explicitly covered in existing sources, and which information is the result of your own original research and synthesis. You clearly feel passionately about this, and I get the impression that you do in fact have much time to challenge this systemic bias. Your strategies have only resulted in your getting blocked, so I'm asking you to focus your efforts more effectively.

I agree that there's probably too much undue weight given to Greco-Roman roots. If I don't hear objections to my talk page proposal, then I think a lot of this content can get cut out. If you have content that you want to add about medieval origins of Western identity, then please propose specific changes and include explicit sources. — Freoh 13:29, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Listening to your advice I am now searching citations. It seems that the West is born in the European "Church climate" even according to an important source as UNESCO:

An entirely new factor – the Church – came into the world. It was the start of the crystallization of mankind around this principle that unites the divine and the human.

Of course the West was heavily influenced by policies and culture of the civilizations of Greece and Rome, but we waste time arguing whether 1054's excommunications of the Schism and Crusades are better in "lede's shade", while Greco-Roman ancient roots are clearly better in history's "lede's start"? This is painful and I can't understand why yet, User:Rim sim's Eurocentrism would be the way to go. So I am calling myself out now: paganism (pre-Christian beliefs) was "multi-God" or polytheistic, not uniting as Christianity.

So if this worldwide change in moral values that happened with Christianity first and only Western monotheistic belief, is not the origin of the Western world and deserves no better visibility in the lede, I suspect it's the moral values themselves that are found collectively incomprehensible to most users whether new or established. Which is damn curious. Bambablock (talk) 05:36, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And then, probably the only doubt is whether it is born with the French monarchy in AD 800 or German by AD 1054. Bambablock (talk) 06:54, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Probably the best source I could provide, from a university teacher. Undeniably, the idea of a Western world is from Europeans in the Middle Ages, as argued since about 10 straight weeks now. Main point is that Western is equivalent to Christendom:

Thus, the Romans deliberately adopted an older set of ideas and considered themselves part of an ongoing civilization that blended Greek and Roman values. Like the Greeks before them, they also divided civilization itself in a stark binary: there was Greco-Roman culture on the one hand and barbarism on the other, although they made a reluctant exception for Persia at times. [..] This shift to the east culminated in the move of the capital of the empire from the city of Rome to the Greek town of Byzantium, renamed Constantinople by the empire who ordered the move: Constantine. Thus, while the Greco-Roman legacy was certainly a major factor in the development of the idea of Western Civilization much later, “Roman” was certainly not the same thing as “western” at the time. [..] During the Middle Ages, another concept of what lay at the heart of Western Civilization arose, especially among Europeans. It was not just the connection to Roman and Greek accomplishments, but instead, to religion. The Roman Empire had started to become Christian in the early fourth century CE when the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Many Europeans in the Middle Ages came to believe that, despite the fact that they spoke different languages and had different rulers, they were united as part of “Christendom”: the kingdom of Christ and of Christians.

The academic work in three volumes is introduced per given link above as "aimed at American colleges and universities" (not underage students). Bambablock (talk) 09:57, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's a lot more helpful. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the Brooks source can be cited on Wikipedia because it looks like a self-published source. I also think that Greco-Roman roots should probably appear in the lead before medieval Christian roots, partly because it's something that a fair number of Westerners point to as their origin, and partly just to preserve chronological order. However, I did a little bit more digging and I found a few sources that I think can justify some major changes in the ways that this information is framed:

Allardyce, Gilbert (June 1982). "The Rise and Fall of the Western Civilization Course". The American Historical Review. 87 (3): 695. doi:10.2307/1864161. JSTOR 1864161.
Williams, Robert A. (2012). Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-33876-0. OCLC 760975009.
Patterson, Thomas C. (1997). Inventing Western Civilization. New York: Monthly Review Press. ISBN 978-1-58367-409-3. OCLC 606950598.

I'll keep slowly working on this, but it will take some time. Let me know if you have specific changes you'd like to make. — Freoh 16:52, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Hanson, Victor Davis (18 December 2007). Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-42518-8. the term "Western" — refer to the culture of classical antiquity that arose in Greece and Rome; survived the collapse of the Roman Empire; spread to western and northern Europe; then during the great periods of exploration and colonization of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries expanded to the Americas, Australia and areas of Asia and Africa; and now exercises global political, economic, cultural, and military power far greater than the size of its territory or population might otherwise suggest.
^ Spielvogel, Jackson J. (2006). Western Civilization. Wadsworth. pp. xxxiii. ISBN 9780534646028. With the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire, however, peoples in Europe began to identify themselves as part of a civilization different from others, such as that of Islam, leading to a concept of a Western civilization different from other civilizations. In the fifteenth century, Renaissance intellectuals began to identify this civilization not only with Christianity but also with the intellectual and political achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Important to the development of the idea of a distinct Western civilization were encounters with other peoples. Between 700 and 1500, encounters with the world of Islam helped define the West. But after 1500, as European ships began to move into other parts of the world, encounters with peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Americas not only had an impact on the civilizations found there but also affected how people in the West defined themselves. At the same time, as they set up colonies, Europeans began to transplant a sense of Western identity to other areas of the world, especially North America and parts of Latin America, that have come to be considered part of Western civilization.
^ Stearns, Peter N. (2008). Western Civilization in World History. Routledge. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9781134374755. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Western civilization expanded geographically, in whole or in part. [...] a host of major trends... occurred essentially in parallel, suggesting significant cohesion within an expanded Western civilization. The industrial revolution, though launched in Britain, turned out to be a transatlantic process very quickly. ... The same applies to the new movement to limit per capita birth rates – the demographic transition that ran through Western civilization during the 19th century... and the outcomes by 1900, in unprecedentedly low birth rates per family combined with rapidly falling infant death rates, was essentially the same through out this expanded Western world.
^ Sharon, Moshe (2004). Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Babi-Baha'i Faiths. BRILL Academic Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 978-9004139046. Side by side with Christianity, the classical Greco-Roman world forms the sound foundation of Western civilization. Greek philosophy is also the origin for the methods and contents of the philosophical thought and theological investigation in Islam and Judaism.
^
- Pagden, Anthony (2008). Worlds at War The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West. Oxford University Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780199237432. Had the Persians overrun all of mainland Greece, had they then transformed the Greek city-states into satrapies of the Persian Empire, had Greek democracy been snuffed out, there would have been no Greek theater, no Greek science, no Plato, no Aristotle, no Sophocles, no Aeschylus. The incredible burst of creative energy that took place during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. and that laid the foundation for all of later Western civilization would never have happened. [...] in the years between 490 and 479 B.C.E., the entire future of the Western world hung precariously in the balance.
- Cartledge, Paul (2002). The Greeks A Portrait of Self and Others. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0191577833. Greekness was identified with freedom-spiritual and social as well as political-and slavery was equated with being barbarian, [...] 'democracy' was a Greek invention (celebrating its 2,500th anniversary in 1993/4) [...] an ancient culture, that of the Greeks — is both a foundation stone of our own (Western) civilization and at the same time in key respects a deeply alien phenomenon.
- Freeman, Charles (2000). The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 434. ISBN 978-0140293234. The Greeks provided the chromosomes of Western civilization. One does not have to idealize the Greeks to sustain that point. Greek ways of exploring the cosmos, defining the problems of knowledge (and what is meant by knowledge itself), creating the language in which such problems are explored, representing the physical world and human society in the arts, defining the nature of value, describing the past, still underlie the Western cultural tradition.
- Richard, Carl J. (2010). Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0742567801. In 1,200 years the tiny village of Rome established a republic, conquered all of the Mediterranean basin and western Europe, lost its republic, and finally, surrendered its empire. In the process the Romans laid the foundation of Western civilization. [...] The pragmatic Romans brought Greek and Hebrew ideas down to earth, modified them, and transmitted them throughout western Europe. [...] Roman law remains the basis for the legal codes of most western European and Latin American countries — Even in English-speaking countries, where common law prevails, Roman law has exerted substantial influence.
- Grant, Michael (1991). The Founders of the Western World: A History of Greece and Rome. New York : Scribner : Maxwell Macmillan International. ISBN 978-0684193038.

Blocked as a sockpuppet[edit]

You have been blocked indefinitely from editing for abusing multiple accounts as a sockpuppet of User:The basis of per the evidence presented at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/The basis of. Note that multiple accounts are allowed, but not for illegitimate reasons, and any contributions made while evading blocks or bans may be reverted or deleted.

If you think there are good reasons for being unblocked, please read the guide to appealing blocks, then add the following text below the block notice on your talk page: {{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 04:57, 19 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[Hanson-1] Hanson, Victor Davis (18 December 2007). Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-42518-8. the term "Western" — refer to the culture of classical antiquity that arose in Greece and Rome; survived the collapse of the Roman Empire; spread to western and northern Europe; then during the great periods of exploration and colonization of the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries expanded to the Americas, Australia and areas of Asia and Africa; and now exercises global political, economic, cultural, and military power far greater than the size of its territory or population might otherwise suggest.

[Spielvogel-2] Spielvogel, Jackson J. (2006). Western Civilization. Wadsworth. pp. xxxiii. ISBN 9780534646028. With the rise of Christianity during the Late Roman Empire, however, peoples in Europe began to identify themselves as part of a civilization different from others, such as that of Islam, leading to a concept of a Western civilization different from other civilizations. In the fifteenth century, Renaissance intellectuals began to identify this civilization not only with Christianity but also with the intellectual and political achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Important to the development of the idea of a distinct Western civilization were encounters with other peoples. Between 700 and 1500, encounters with the world of Islam helped define the West. But after 1500, as European ships began to move into other parts of the world, encounters with peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Americas not only had an impact on the civilizations found there but also affected how people in the West defined themselves. At the same time, as they set up colonies, Europeans began to transplant a sense of Western identity to other areas of the world, especially North America and parts of Latin America, that have come to be considered part of Western civilization.

[3] Stearns, Peter N. (2008). Western Civilization in World History. Routledge. pp. 94–95. ISBN 9781134374755. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Western civilization expanded geographically, in whole or in part. [...] a host of major trends... occurred essentially in parallel, suggesting significant cohesion within an expanded Western civilization. The industrial revolution, though launched in Britain, turned out to be a transatlantic process very quickly. ... The same applies to the new movement to limit per capita birth rates – the demographic transition that ran through Western civilization during the 19th century... and the outcomes by 1900, in unprecedentedly low birth rates per family combined with rapidly falling infant death rates, was essentially the same through out this expanded Western world.

[4] Sharon, Moshe (2004). Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and the Babi-Baha'i Faiths. BRILL Academic Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 978-9004139046. Side by side with Christianity, the classical Greco-Roman world forms the sound foundation of Western civilization. Greek philosophy is also the origin for the methods and contents of the philosophical thought and theological investigation in Islam and Judaism.

[5] 
Pagden, Anthony (2008). Worlds at War The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West. Oxford University Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780199237432. Had the Persians overrun all of mainland Greece, had they then transformed the Greek city-states into satrapies of the Persian Empire, had Greek democracy been snuffed out, there would have been no Greek theater, no Greek science, no Plato, no Aristotle, no Sophocles, no Aeschylus. The incredible burst of creative energy that took place during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. and that laid the foundation for all of later Western civilization would never have happened. [...] in the years between 490 and 479 B.C.E., the entire future of the Western world hung precariously in the balance.
Cartledge, Paul (2002). The Greeks A Portrait of Self and Others. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0191577833. Greekness was identified with freedom-spiritual and social as well as political-and slavery was equated with being barbarian, [...] 'democracy' was a Greek invention (celebrating its 2,500th anniversary in 1993/4) [...] an ancient culture, that of the Greeks — is both a foundation stone of our own (Western) civilization and at the same time in key respects a deeply alien phenomenon.
Freeman, Charles (2000). The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 434. ISBN 978-0140293234. The Greeks provided the chromosomes of Western civilization. One does not have to idealize the Greeks to sustain that point. Greek ways of exploring the cosmos, defining the problems of knowledge (and what is meant by knowledge itself), creating the language in which such problems are explored, representing the physical world and human society in the arts, defining the nature of value, describing the past, still underlie the Western cultural tradition.
Richard, Carl J. (2010). Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0742567801. In 1,200 years the tiny village of Rome established a republic, conquered all of the Mediterranean basin and western Europe, lost its republic, and finally, surrendered its empire. In the process the Romans laid the foundation of Western civilization. [...] The pragmatic Romans brought Greek and Hebrew ideas down to earth, modified them, and transmitted them throughout western Europe. [...] Roman law remains the basis for the legal codes of most western European and Latin American countries — Even in English-speaking countries, where common law prevails, Roman law has exerted substantial influence.
Grant, Michael (1991). The Founders of the Western World: A History of Greece and Rome. New York : Scribner : Maxwell Macmillan International. ISBN 978-0684193038.

[6] Pagden, Anthony (2008). Worlds at War The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West. Oxford University Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780199237432. Had the Persians overrun all of mainland Greece, had they then transformed the Greek city-states into satrapies of the Persian Empire, had Greek democracy been snuffed out, there would have been no Greek theater, no Greek science, no Plato, no Aristotle, no Sophocles, no Aeschylus. The incredible burst of creative energy that took place during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. and that laid the foundation for all of later Western civilization would never have happened. [...] in the years between 490 and 479 B.C.E., the entire future of the Western world hung precariously in the balance.

[7] Cartledge, Paul (2002). The Greeks A Portrait of Self and Others. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0191577833. Greekness was identified with freedom-spiritual and social as well as political-and slavery was equated with being barbarian, [...] 'democracy' was a Greek invention (celebrating its 2,500th anniversary in 1993/4) [...] an ancient culture, that of the Greeks — is both a foundation stone of our own (Western) civilization and at the same time in key respects a deeply alien phenomenon.

[8] Freeman, Charles (2000). The Greek Achievement: The Foundation of the Western World. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 434. ISBN 978-0140293234. The Greeks provided the chromosomes of Western civilization. One does not have to idealize the Greeks to sustain that point. Greek ways of exploring the cosmos, defining the problems of knowledge (and what is meant by knowledge itself), creating the language in which such problems are explored, representing the physical world and human society in the arts, defining the nature of value, describing the past, still underlie the Western cultural tradition.

[9] Richard, Carl J. (2010). Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0742567801. In 1,200 years the tiny village of Rome established a republic, conquered all of the Mediterranean basin and western Europe, lost its republic, and finally, surrendered its empire. In the process the Romans laid the foundation of Western civilization. [...] The pragmatic Romans brought Greek and Hebrew ideas down to earth, modified them, and transmitted them throughout western Europe. [...] Roman law remains the basis for the legal codes of most western European and Latin American countries — Even in English-speaking countries, where common law prevails, Roman law has exerted substantial influence.

[10] Grant, Michael (1991). The Founders of the Western World: A History of Greece and Rome. New York : Scribner : Maxwell Macmillan International. ISBN 978-0684193038.

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