Post: #26

(05-09-2016 08:19 PM)Irenicus Wrote:  Western civilization is much more than Indoeuropean culture.


Who, for example, invented Christianity, which is one of the most important cornerstones of the West ?

An ethnic Jew called Jesus. Not an Indoeuropean.

But the Greeks and early Romans were not Christians. They are quintessentially Western. Or do you not consider them western? Maybe we have different definitions.

Christian is only Western if you limit the west to just around 1000years, 1000AD to now.

Post: #27

In a nutshell, multiculturalism/diversity is the KEY power of western civilization? Is that your point?

--OFM

(05-08-2016 03:31 AM)Anabasis to Desta Wrote:  The greatest single achievement of Western Civilization is the Scientific Method and the formalization of knowledge which led to everything we have now. Mentality-wise ... the greatest advantage Western civilization has had over other cultures (starting with the Greeks & Romans until the U.S.A right now) is the willingness to accept innovation & change.

The Chinese, Persians and Indians had great civilizations rife with innovation & enough wealth and could have easily rivaled or even surpassed western civilization.

But they were always unwilling to accept change. The Chinese, consumed by their own arrogance refused to trade with the world and isolated themselves. Progress in the form of innovation or new ideas was always frowned upon. Anything that might even slightly upset still pond of status quo was quickly discarded ... after-all the Chinese were "perfect" and the center of the Universe. The Indians weren't as arrogant but had the same risk-averse mentality. They also lacked blood-thirst and a martial spirit. The Persians could have done a lot and were historically very adaptable like the West. We might have all be speaking Farsi right now. But then Islam happened to Persia and a once great civilization stagnated for 1400 years.

Western Civilization however always welcomed change. Anything new or foreign that is not useful was discarded. Anything that was useful was quickly adopted, spread and improved upon unlike other cultures who often threw out the baby with the bathwater.

- The Romans adopted almost the entire Greek civilization and built upon it. Other cultures outside the west rarely did that. The Mongols invaded half the planet but brought almost nothing back to Mongolia. They raided, raped and pillaged but never were open to knowledge and progress. Their nomadic way of horseman life was dear to them.

- The Crusaders brought back and adopted the magnetic compass & astrolabe for ships & seafaring, cotton for clothing, windmills, algebra, waterclocks and most importantly ... gunpowder from the Near East. All became households items in Europe within a century.

They also brought back the middle eastern culture of Chivalry and made it their own. (Before the crusades the French were a bunch of extremely violent brutes. I've read that Urban II actually wanted to get rid of excess violent Frenchmen) On the other hand, the Arabs and Seljuk Turks adopted almost nothing from the Europeans. Same unwillingness to change.

- Potatoes were introduced by the Spanish from the New World and became a staple food in Northern Europe in less than 200 years. The Chinese would have died before giving up rice for potatoes. Despite the Ethiopian famine in the 1970's farmers refused to plant Maize which had a higher yield and required less rain then the local staple grain called Teff.

- America now does the same. Mexican food is adopted and given a unique American twist ... Taco Johns, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Qdoba. Radical ideas are accepted and promoted. Twitter ... a website were users post their ramblings with stupid hashtags could only have been made possible in America.

In China, somebody with that idea would have been laughed at and chased out of the boardroom. But Western civilization finds use for even the most outlandish ideas.

Rant over I'm drunk as fuck.

Post: #28

^^^ female detected