Thoughts on the Plovdiv Folklore Festival

I have two thoughts on having attended the Plovdiv Folklore Festival.

First thought: a lot of us North Americans and Anglos are inclined to see Paris as the capital of world culture--realizing how much richer it is culturally than our own sad Anglo efforts. Food, painting, dance, fashion, discussing philosophy in a sidewalk cafe, the bohemian life--all that.

But we ain't seen nothing. The French may impress us, but guess who blows the French mind with their wild romantic passions? The Slavs. Hence the term "Bohemian"--based on a cadre of Czech students who appeared at the Sorbonne. No way the French could handle them. And when a regiment of Croats passed through? All the French wanted to dress just as they dressed. Hence the necktie or "cravat."

The French are cultured enough to appreciate a superior culture when they see one.

There were folk troupes from countries other than the Slav nations at the folklife festival. But they embarrassed themselves by showing up. The Bulgarians were terribly nice--they started applauding loudly whenever the foreigners seemed to falter. But the non-Slav groups were just not in the same league.

I suspect Slav culture really runs in a continuous line--more continuous and consistent than we realize--to ancient Greece, and is the inheritor of all that awesomeness from Greece, the Levant, Byzantium, Macedonia, Thrace, and the empire of Alexander. In fact, the Russian royal house always laid claim to being the direct successors to Byzantium. Culturally speaking, they are our European big brothers.

My second thought: if the EU and NATO really think they can assimilate the Western Slav lands without also eventually making room for Russia, they have no idea what they are doing. In the long run, whatever are the local rivalries, any alliance that splits the Slav world is artificial, unstable and untenable. Ask Austria-Hungary. The ties of pan-Slavism feel too strong.

There can be no united Europe without Russia in any event.