[ExI] The Evils of the West

[Eschatoon Magic]

Why not just "On the world stage, this means trying to help all
societies acquire the institutions that deliver the goods", without
"Western"?

In practice I agree that the Western civilization has produced a lot
of good things that should be made available to other civilization.
But I do not agree that all that is Western is good, and all that is
not Western is bad. Perhaps we also have a few lessons to learn from
others.

On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 3:22 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> Eschatoon Magic wrote:
>
>> Thanks Lee for this very smart observation.
>
> Well, thank you, but in places it was rather badly written, I'm afraid.
>
>> Many of "us" are nice people... because we can afford it. In the past,
>> when we could not afford it, we were not nice.
>
> Yes, but to be more precise, being nice can arise
> out of habit. For example, it might take a nice,
> and healthy and wealthy person in our society
> many months of extremely grueling conditions to
> change over.
>
> And I believe I did state that the converse sadly
> isn't true: some comfortable people and some comfortable
> groups have been surprisingly wicked.
>
>> Many fellow human
>> beings born in other cultures still cannot afford being nice, and they
>> are not nice. Many fellow human beings born in _our_ culture still
>> cannot afford being nice, and they are not nice. Simple as that.
>
> Yes, though speaking about individuals, it is the exceptions
> to this rule that are quite interesting. Sometimes you'll
> find someone who's had a very rough go of it, but somehow
> manages to have amazingly great empathy for others.
>
> Born with a lot of it, I guess.
>
>> It follows that we should do our very best to give everyone the
>> possibility to be a nice person.
>
> On the world stage, this means trying to help all societies
> acquire the Western institutions that deliver the goods.
>
> Within nations, this means attempting to rub out subcultures
> (the cultures, of course, not the people in them) that nourish
> viciousness.
>
> Lee
>
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-- 
Eschatoon Magic
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Eschatoon
aka Giulio Prisco
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Giulio_Prisco