The Importance Of Dualism

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As pleasant as a society devoid of turmoil may sound, after a while it would feel rather mundane. In order to accurately appreciate the more vigorous and virtuous aspects of a civilization, there must be an unsatisfactory and putrid base-line for comparison. It is specifically this duality that has made several well-known cultures so dynamic. This dichotomy is particularly evident in the regions of Italy, Germany, Poland, Japan, and the Middle East. For starters, Italy, and more specifically Rome, is famed for its rich abundance of art, architecture and for being the epicenter of the Catholic religion. The Vatican, “a city state surrounded by Rome”, houses the Sistine Chapel (Zapella). The same chapel where Michelangelo laid on his back upon a scaffolding and tediously painted a variety of scenes from the Old Testament. For four long years, Michelangelo slaved away at the frescoes, and proved how vital determination, hard-work, and most importantly a steady hand were to executing his biblical beauties …show more content…

The forces of good and evil are alive in every society. The aforestated catastrophic events and amazing displays of art and architecture are the same events and arts used by John Farmer Jr. in his piece “The price we pay for our beliefs”. He acknowledges the existence of favorable and unfavorable circumstances in each culture, proceeds to explain why they exist, and more importantly how to rectify them. As pointed out by John Farmer Jr., regardless if a society is Catholic, Jewish, German or Japanese, dilemmas exist within every society. They exist precisely because of citizens indomitably asserting that they are in fact Catholic, Jewish, German or Japanese. By constructing borders around their identity, it is believed that anything outside of said borders is morally and ethically wrong. As John Farmer Jr. puts it, “We define by excluding. We say who we are… by saying who we are

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