numan
What! Me Worry?
- Mar 23, 2013
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Do our western traditions of open discussion and acceptance of new and different ideas ....
Our 'what'....? Have you ever taken a gander at Western history?
Yes, for most of "Western" history, the culture has been violent and intolerant in the extreme. In the Middle Ages, Islamic culture was, by and large, much more tolerant than the violent, feudal, theocratic culture of Europe. Today, a reasonable case can be made that the opposite is, in certain respects, true, but for how long? Even recently, Hitler, Stalin, George W. Bush and many of his ilk have been tireless in their attempts to destroy "the better angels of our culture."
Furthermore, how "democratic" is a culture which has led to half the world's wealth being concentrated in the hands of 62 billionaire oligarchs?
If we look at things broadly, every culture has its strong points and weak points, and these are not constant, but change over time.
In the past few centuries, science and invention have exploded out of Europe; but further back, starting from the times of the Greeks and the Romans, The West was remarkably lacking in original science and invention. Most technological invention came from China until the time of the Renaissance in Italy. This is well established and indisputable. The one bright area of the Greek and Roman culture was geometry and the systematizing of knowledge.