Hong said:
I very much agree with Jenna. To consider a whole package deal "Western Culture" is somewhat superior than another whole culture such as the "Eastern Culture", whatever it is, shows a gross ignorance.
How might we compare cultures? Well first we have to give some meaning to the term “Western Culture” and “Eastern Culture” What exactly is “Easter Culture”? Are we talking about Shintoism? Confucianism? Buddhism? Islam? Are we talking about the ideas originated by “Eastern” people? Or ideas actively practiced by them? Or both? Or all of these averaged out? Are we talking about Vietnamese culture or Chinese culture or Japanese culture or Filipino culture (all very different in many areas) Does “Eastern Culture” include the middle east? Or does “Eastern Culture” simply mean “Non western” ?
“Western culture” has a much more homogenous manifestation to it, originating generally in Caucasian European’s and descendants but also rapidly incorporating many useful ideas from many other cultures, something which many “eastern” cultures vehemently oppose. Chinese culture, for instance, has repeatedly “dropped the ball” so to speak. What did it do in response to discovering a new world? It beached it’s massive fleet, burned it’s ships, and built a giant wall. The new world should have been filled by Chinese explorers 100 years before Europeans. In the 1940’s the nationalists lost to the communists and again China turned inward. Had china embraced markets and internationalism instead of communism and isolationism at that time they would no doubt still be the reigning world superpower, there would have been no Korean war, no Vietnam war, no Cold War, and probably no lasting monstrous empire of the Soviet Union. China was burning coal 500 years before Europe was, and invented gun powder while Europeans were still burning witches and having jousts. But what did they do with those great innovations? When Europe mastered the use of coal it created machines and started the whole of the industrial revolution. When Europe discovered gun powder it helped to bring the ideas of liberty, individual rights, and the ability to pursue your own dreams to many other cultures. The history of China is one of mostly feuding empires and murderous tribal warfare.
If you were to say that anything that originated in western thought (white Europeans or ancient Greece) is western, then you would also have to include Islam, since the god of Islam is the same of Judaism and in fact Islam embraces the old testament as a holy book as well. So If anything influenced by judeo \ Christianity is ‘western’ than Islam is also western, that kind of inclusion pretty much renders the term useless. So while communism originated in western thoughts by these standards (Plato’s republic, after all, reads like a communist treatise) it was never any western cultures that adopted it and practiced it. Which speaks more of a culture, coming up with an idea or having whole nations or tribal groups embrace it?
Is it right to identify Nazism and Socialism with “western culture” Nazism was nothing but theocratic fascist racism, something the Japanese culture is intimately familiar with. Eastern culture is certainly not without it’s own murderous incarnations of Nazism. Same for socialism, the idea of taking from the producers and giving to the needy is certainly not only a “western discovery” but the idea of capitalism, liberty, democracy, and the pursuit of happiness primarily is.
Jenna said:
And, thinking differently because my language, social life, food, youth, etc. is Eastern rather than Western-- and there are differences-- that's not morally wrong, as long as those universal human values (such as sanctity of life, growth, etc.) aren't being squashed. I think that being able to look at things in the Eastern wholistic way as well as Western reductionist way is an advantage as it helps me keep context.
And yet where did these universal human values originate? What culture promulgated them to all other cultures of the world that had not yet independently discovered them? To what extent have other cultures discovered and implemented them? Were any of the tribes of China democratic and market based before the great empire was unified? Any groups in India or Pakistan?
Science, Reason, Capitalism, individual rights, liberal democracies, constitutions, all were fully embraced by what in modern times is referred to as the “West” (e.g. America, Britain, Australia, etc) Mysticism, irrationality, communism, racism, group think, were all regularly and wholly embraced by many eastern cultures, and *especially* middle eastern. Was the Soviet Union a part of the west? The Eastern Bloc certainly didn’t think so, and generally today people when speaking of the west seem to almost always include as a core of it capitalism. But the definition of words change over time, what do you mean when you say “western culture” ?
Any one of any race or religion can come to America and become an American, I can never go to China and become Chinese. I think that says a lot about a culture right there, since a fundamental component of it is race. You and Jenna may assert that it is unfair to consider western culture superior to eastern, but where do you and your families live? You are both here partaking in western culture, not there embracing eastern cultures. I can’t help but think that says a lot about how much you value a culture.
For good or ill the very idea of finding value in other cultures and respecting seems to be a western trait, as the histories of the western world and eastern world attests. And what is the vile post-modernism of the west but something wrought forth from the influence of eastern culture’s mysticism? In it’s conceptual implications its hardly different from the nihilism of Buddhism. (Hey if you get to blame communism on the west I’m going to blame post-modernism on the east =P )
But we are not talking about chopsticks vs forks here but the most important and fundamental core aspects of the things you should truly judge the value of a culture by, it’s respect for individuals. As long as people are allowed to acquire the needs to survive, to keep most of the products of their labor, to have a cultural acceptance of choosing their own way, and this is clearly something that more nations that are now called “the west” do, then I do not care how they dress or what utensils they choose to eat with.
I deeply admire many aspects of many cultures, from Judaism and the Jesuit Priesthood to Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese cultures. I enjoy the stories and tales I see coming from Hong Kong far more than the drivel Hollywood produces, and I have no doubt I would enjoy many “ballywood” movies as well (movies of course being one manifestation of representations of culture, I cant yet read any estern languages) KI Truly find many cultures fascinating but am limited in the time I have available on this planet to learn about them. I am currently learning to speak Vietnamese and routinely write and publish articles trying to raise awareness of the brutal oppression of the communist government on the 80 million people of Vietnam, hosting a “Free Vietnam” web site and working on translating important works to Vietnamese. Do I think “western culture” is superior to Vietnamese? Well any culture that embraces the fundamentals of human liberty and reason is superior to cultures which do not, it is as simple as that to me. I think that anyone familiar with my posts here knows I have a great deal of empathy for the things that many eastern cultures have suffered, especially under totalitarianism and communism (as my Communism and Moral Ambiguity article and Rape of Nan King posts I think attest) but I will always find any culture inferior which does not recognize and respect the basic rights of sentient beings.
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