September 12, 1683: Jan Sobieski Day . . .

_{kairosfocus

September 12, 2016

Culture, General interest, Geo-strategic issues}

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SOBIESKI-1-276x330 — Jan III Sobieski of Poland, victor at the gates of Vienna Sept 12, 1683

For, on that day, Poland — personally led by its king — rode to the rescue of our Civilisation at the gates of Vienna.

(Details — and movie, here; also see on Complacency Day, here.)

Be it solemnly moved that from this day forward, we shall remember:

Complacency Day, Sept 10;

9/11-01, Sept 11;

Sobieski Day, Sept 12.

Seconds?

I close with a paraphrase from Santayana and others: those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed by that folly to repeat its worst chapters. END

PS: Summary video on the charge:

[youtube aL0GieO5Rj8]

This gives broader background:

[youtube pc-RWtovrqg]

Comments

"To thee our Captain, Queen of War The battle trophies won, The people rescued by thine aid from peril, Dedicate as offerings of Thanksgiving, O Theotokos, that thou has might, Which none by war can overcome, From all forms of danger thou deliver me, That I may cry unto thee, 'Hail, O Virgin unwedded bride!'" -- Byzantine hymn of victory to the Mother of GodAutodidaktos_{September 13, 2016
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DfO, the story of the croissant is a culinary memory of the two great victories at the gates of Vienna, and it is the second that marked the geostrategic watershed that led to the 250-year struggle to push back the forces of IslamIST that invaded Europe through the Balkans, once Constantinople had fallen in 1453. For 1,000 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire had been the bulwark against Islam in the East. KF PS: Note this appreciation of Jan III Sobieski: http://visegradinsight.eu/coffee-croissants-and-the-halt-of-islam15012015/ (I now add his portrait to the OP above.)kairosfocus_{September 12, 2016
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D, yes and in proportion Poland paid the biggest price. KFkairosfocus_{September 12, 2016
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KF:
[...] history is not telling us what we wish to hear.
You've described the situation precisely as it appears to be. Since history doesn't tell us what we want to hear, we ignore it, or change it until it somehow matches our oblivious wishful thinking. Undeniable pathetic reality of this world. The mistakes that were made before WW2 were paid at an excessively high price in human lives and suffering.Dionisio_{September 12, 2016
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D, we desperately need to learn from painful history but we are too often blind to it. That's a big part of why things repeat or echo or rhyme: we keep making the same basic blunders over and over again. But if we cannot learn from 15 years ago, is there hope we will learn from 300+ or 1,000 or 1500 or 2400 or 3000 years ago? But that is what soundly taught history would teach us. Problem is, the history is not telling us what we wish to hear. KFkairosfocus_{September 12, 2016
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@4 addendum: (*) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deluge_(history)Dionisio_{September 12, 2016
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those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed by that folly to repeat its worst chapters.
Professor Denis Noble (a renown scientist from Oxford University, UK) describes the year he was born in, making precise references to relevant historical events:
I am a child of the 1930s, one of the darkest decades of the twentieth century. In 1936 Hitler was already well-ensconced in Nazi Germany and the sinister events that led to the Second World War were rapidly unfolding. These included the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan, signed on 25 November just days after I was born. The Spanish Civil War had begun. Mussolini and other fascist dictators all over Europe were queuing up to join with the Nazis. Anti-Jewish propaganda was alarmingly threatening, leading to Kristallnacht in 1938, while one of the last Kindertransporten from Vienna was to bring my future PhD supervisor to Britain. http://www.thebestschools.org/dialogues/evolution-denis-noble-interview/
Dionisio_{September 12, 2016
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Before 1989 Polish people used to say: "przezylismy potop szwedzki, przezyjemy i radziecki" (we survived the Swedish invasion*, will survive the soviet too). (*)Dionisio_{September 12, 2016
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KF, thank you for timely reminding about important parts of world history. I second the motion!Dionisio_{September 12, 2016
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Hymn: God, Thou Hast Poland: https://gloria.tv/video/22cTweJKkVEUTfzsFjQmvsVeykairosfocus_{September 12, 2016
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Jan Sobieski day, Sept 12, 1683.kairosfocus_{September 12, 2016
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