Hasbeen wrote:

>>David G, the main thing wrong with the western mind is that it has become too kind for it's own good.>>

Actually Hasbeen I think the fact that we allow David G and his ilk to vent is a sign of our strength. Only insecure regimes like the Saudi monarchy or the Communist Party regime in China seek to shut up their critics

The Western Mind is too kind for its own good, eh, Hasbeen?

Tell that to the folk that survived the onslaught in Iraq and Afghanistan and live with the effects of depleted uranium and white phosphorous. Tell that to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Agent Orange in Vietnam and Cambodia. Tell that to the starving people all over the world who work for their capitalist employers for a pittance. Tell that to the folk that have been tortured and rendered by Western authorities, put in cages without trial, threatened by dogs, etc.

The Western mind is a sick thing. It is amoral. It is brutal and cruel. It is greedy. It hates peace because peace threatens profits and takes away the chance of achieving power and domination.

I stand for peace and equality. What do you stand for?

Like most neo-Marxists, David G reduces all Western achievements to the horrors of war (and advertising coca-cola). It is a reduction to the absurd. Let's look the achievements. Good sanitation methods, computers, radio, automobiles, liberal democracy, telephones, satellite communication, economic prosperity beyond anything previous, equal opportunity regardless of race, sex or class. There's plenty more, but those few will get my point across.

The sick mind is really David G. To only view (Western) life through the prism of war and advertising says more about his agenda than any objective description of what really is the western mind

Hi Reg,

I'm surprised at the comments in regards to your well written article. Many are vague in criticism of 'the West' and, with apologies, like your article seem to focus on only those things that are pertaining only to how we organise our society.

In defence of the West I'd say China's development is largely being conducted 'on the back' of a great many Western Traditions.

Thales, Pythagoras, Plato's Academy, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy among many other are the basis of western mathematics... growth and development in every area.

I know a little of the History of Chinese Mathematic's and it's seems it's influence is accepted to have waned greatly in recent centuries.

Science is a field in which western written and applicational traditions are much much stronger than Chinese. I acknowledge Chinese accomplishments are numerous but there is not the body of scholarship or development comparable to that in the western tradition.

In matters of medicine I'm utterly ignorant.

In matters of economic's ... well command economies simply fail because they are unreal and create unreality. The West has a body of thinkers from generations not from a totalitarian political party.

In political and social philosophy the Chinese are retarded. The body of Western literature, thought and practise hasn't led us to totalitarianism and now seems to be influencing the developing modern Chinese society.

Morality? well a choice between Christ's new testament scriptures, the basis of western society, and learned by rote and sometime applied Confusian homily, imposed by totalitarianism?

We'll let the future decide.

My view is complex. Oh yes China will rise, the West will also continue it's development and an equalibrium which adopts the strengths of both traditions will eventuate. It will probably take centuries. Not decades. During this time we'll see movements of power and influence but overwhelmingly we'll see all growth and development revolve around the broader Western proven traditions with some adaption of Chinese traditions.

Underlying my view is the fact generally Westernism has been extrovert, inclusive and more egalitarian in nature, Chinese traditions generally do not have these attributes.

It's funny how, when you mention words like peace, equality, cooperation, sharing, etc, suddenly, out of the woodwork, appear all manner of psychotic beasties with tiny minds who predictably go on the attack.

In Washington, humans see the world in black and white. There are only friends or enemies. There are only winners and losers. Might is always right. Kill or be killed. Greed is worshiped as the ultimate virtue, compassion is viewed as weakness.

In a Buddhist Monastery a different mindset is encouraged. People are taught to revere all life, to share what little they have, to help others, to respect the planet and all other creatures.

Unfortunately, most humans are born with equal quantities of nobility and evil. Which predominates depends on which social setting they find themselves in.

Our Western world is doomed because, lead by the U.S., it encompasses all the wrong things.

The survivors of the coming nuclear holocaust may set the survivors on a new path.

Then again, there may well be no survivors and human extinction may prove to be a blessing for all other lifeforms.

http://dangerouscreation.com

Oh,dear! I didn't mean my comment to be a show-stopper, honestly.

Has my view of things caused intellectual paralysis? Is everyone watching the British Open? Has the rise of China (as distinct from Batman Rises) caused folk to retreat to caves and old mines?

Reg, your article was prescient, wonderfully so.

http://dangerouscreation.com