The Great Divide: East and West

Peter Helland recently traveled to Croatia to participate in a conference held by Mike Jones on the subject of Beauty and especially about his book, “The Dangers of Beauty.“ About 40 people attended from many different countries. Peter and Mike talk about the trip and some of the discussions that took place there. Mike spent and extra week speaking in Serbia. Around 1992 Catholic Croatia fought Orthodox Serbia. This is where the East meets the West. Some of Mike’s themes in this interview include the quote by Sun Tzu: “If you do not know who you are and you do not know your enemy you can not win.“ Mike says Americans have no ethnic identity and in fact they have a mythic identity. He says the American identity is basically the gun and the bible. But the problem with relying too much on the gun is you might be forgoing the opportunity to reach peace through conversation instead.