Menaduechun

And others who are a bit carried away by tales of an "Asian millennium"

What has shaped the past millennium more than anything else has been the rise of science and technology. The world we live in today is radically different to the world of a thousand years ago because of science and technology.

And for the past thousand years advances in science and technology has been largely a European story.

Not entirely.

But mostly.

It was Europe that achieved scientific "lift-off." It was in Europe that the idea of continuous technological improvement was invented. It was in Europe that the first network of universities and centres of learning devoted to scientific investigation was established. For the past thousand years nearly all important scientific discoveries have been made by Europeans or men who trace their ancestry to Europe.

Not all important scientific discoveries.

But nearly all.

In every way that matters this has been the millennium of Europe and the European cultural inventions of the continuous improvement of science and technology and networked centres of learning devoted to scientific investigation.

The rise of Asia owes more to the adoption of these European cultural inventions than to any specific Asian cultural attributes.

I know this is a bitter pill for all you so-called "progressives" to swallow.

But it happens to be historical fact.

Deal with it.

Stevenlmeyer
Thank you for providing such a clear example of "cultural relativism." I have been giving a lot of thought recently to how understanding the traps of "cultural relativism" may be applied in effective problem solving.
In dealing with the great steps Western civilization has contributed to the world, may it be reminded that the author’s intention was not to belittle the West, but draw attention to the great Asian achievements our Eurocentric egos would rather disregard- "the river of forgetfulness."
I have lived over 35 years of my life in Japan and Korea, I have not been carried away by the Tales of the Asian Millennium, I have been an active witness and participant. On a daily basis I am enriched, and I also shudder when I consider what I might have missed if I let my whole life revolve around only one perspective of our globe.
Your bitter pill is not required as I feel I may be able to comprehend that stepping out of our comfort zone really is not that difficult.
Thank you.

Unless you understand the impact the Himalays have on Asia then you will NEVER understand its future or its PAST. Living in one of the least orographic regions of the planet, Australians are simply OBLIVIOUS. They tend to come up with fairy story prognoses which make them look foolish pushovers.

The Himalays deliver FREE ENERGY to Asians and this is a double edged sword. Free energy builds order but also OVERPOPULATION. Then everything is obliterated in environmental catastrophes beyond the comprehension of Europeans. The ensuing poverty converts these environmental disturbances into social ones and spirits of Ghengis and Mao plough the masses like crops.

Asian ascension seems inevitable but two things will change this. Internal population pressures following natural disasters & the fact that brutal western nations have Nuclear weapons ensuring any global Asian expansion war is eliminated by M.A.D. considerqations.

As for asian integration. Once Asians leave the shadows of the Himalays they lose free energy. They lose the minerals, the pulse of life that makes them asian and they just become Europeans.

Australia has problems ahead too. If we do not value the mountains we have and learn to use them wisely we too will have a very uncertain future - less threatened by Asia than by internal civil disturbances of European origin based on looming Oil shortages.

Australia is overpopulated and Oil(free energy) poor. We are ruled by anti-democratic monsters who IMMIGRATE hordes of useless people to cement monopoly markets & subsequent privileges for the few.
For us to even contemplate Asia's future without understanding THAT is just ......

Well researched and written, describing in detail some of the past cultural richness of the East.I particularly liked the poetic idea of falling leaves as a way of introducing different aspects of the essay.
I have been encouraged to access the UNESCO website for further examples of cultural significance from both the East and West.

Jaromir,

The Second Law Of Thermodynamics and in particular the way in which it unwinds free ENERGY sources inexorably to thermal equilibrium is what controls the thrust of all cultures and thus mankind as a whole.
Cultural significance is an illusion based on less than a century of industrial growth which is based primarily on finite reserves of OIL with a weak contribution from dirty coal whose free energy is cut by up to 80% by pollution offsets which drag back much of the productive WORK done by this free energy source. Further, Coal and oil are NOT solar stored energy. Their primary input is geological: heat, pressure and violent impacts convert wet, useless vegetation into useable free energy sources. In a scientific era, the oversight involved in ignoring these facts are just astounding. It points to economic theory TAMPERING with the very basis of science in order to create wealth for the few and enslave the many. Albeit with many shiny and exquisite trinkets as a sinister diversion.

Despite delusional climate scientists trying desperately to prove CO2 is the major influence on our current cultural trajectories, GEOTECTONIC forces or trhe lack thereof (ice ages) , as they always have as evidenced in paleontological records, determine which human cultures survive -- if any.

The latest Sunda quake just reached 8.7 richter and this, plus Fukishima tells the scientist in me that the Earths crust is shrinking, which indicates a COOLING of its interior. This COOLING will be far more devastating than anything man has faced since the last significant ice age. It will occur over the same 100 year time frame that CO2 buggers are telling us the Earth will heat up.

Don't they realise that if the Earth heated up and Changes were happening that we would be getting more FREE ENERGY which would support cultural significance & not destroy it. In fact the best thing for mankind would be an asteroid impact. After all the initial death and destruction the FREE ENERGY would be just beyond our current imaginations in its scope and transformability of our technological development.

Continued,

Erstwhile the Earth is cooling and shrinking and humankind is in for a BUMPY ride. Problem is we will have to do it without OIL. One thing we can guarantee is that we have used all the oil that can be got without putting more filthy coal resources into extracting it!

And right to the very end of global economics and tenable cultural mergers, Wayne Swan, from opposition benches will be predicting budget surplusses, because he does not know any better.

Meanwhile its obvious that the only limited but viable human populations left on Earth will be in the shadows or the Himalayas, the Rockies and the European Alps. Places like Australia will be essentially uninhabitable without significant orographic Free Energy flows after everything has been poisoned with coal residues and war.

Women in our populations will NEVER allow any other outcome because it will "infringe" their breeding rights.

Go Girls!