Even in the nicer places, it was obvious white people were not as ubiquitous as they were even a few short years ago

My point is that this is a level of change that would have caused an unprecedented pushback most other places in the world

Here it seems to have occured without anyone noticing or caring

THE ABSENCE OF CULTURE IS EASILY PERCEIVED

I WENT FROM A MINORITY MAJORITY CITY TO OLD EUROPE

AND SAW WHAT WE HAD LOST

THERE IS MORE TRUST, SURE, BUT MOSTLY MORE ORDER, RHYTHM AND BALANCE

EVERYTHING IS JUST MORE RELAXED AND LESS HOSTILE

relaxed and less hostile is probably it

its not just trust, you're quite right

you can have a cohesive culture populated by subgroups, you have that anyway simply due to class

is the basic attitude open (not just polite, or not even polite) or cut-off?

by this bar some arab countries are not cohesive at all, while others are

Egypt would be fine, but not say Qatar

question for the gallery, is metal in any of its forms, the modern day iteration of baroque, romantic, and classicaly music? is it explicitly white? are the musicians playing it some of the best in the world? I thought I'd agree with all these sentiments

metal is (was) the modern day expression of a cultural/spiritual trend that resulted in romanticism

its roots in baroque music lie in it being western music

classical it is not connected to beyond individual inspiration and being art music

a thing like metal cannot be specifically white, but its definitely something that arose from a white metaconsciousness/spirit

its as white as indian classical music is indian

i.e. a lot, but not absolutely

are the musicians playing it some of the best in the world? Depends on what one means by musician

if this is restricted to technical skill alone, not even close

few among them reach the standards of even passable classical musicians (not soloists either)

and the ones that do reach such standards are rarely any good

but if taken in the sense of one who produces music, which encompasses both elements of music production

the technical element as well as the abstract, creative element

then I would certainly think they have been the best in the world as far as any kind of western music is concerned, for >100 years

does metal music occupy the same place, or does it have the same function

as western classical music?

I don't think it does

its closest to greek theatre or folk music types that involve storytelling

high level bard music

as a result I think in ultimate terms metal music is superior to western classical music because the latter ignored these elements or abstracted them away from human experience too much

Wagner tried to bring things together but went about it completely the wrong way, upside down even

he tried to rediscover a root using the very tools and thought that had caused drift away from that root

sort of like using scientific experiments to get to the bottom of your relationship with a loved one

Music is divine, and the greatest music is as a result possessed of a (divine) simplicity

it strips everything away

classical music (in general) is not like that, but metal music is

@Jossi DEPENDS ON THE METAL, BUT YES, IT CARRIES FORWARD THE CLASSICAL SPIRIT. IT IS WHITE IN ORIGIN, BUT OTHER CULTURES MAKE THEIR OWN ADAPTATIONS WHICH REFLECT MORE OF THEIR TRADITIONS.