Monday, March 12, 2018

Western Civilization...who needs it?


The other day I heard some guy going on about how great western civilization was and I kept quiet as I'd been relatively indifferent but gave it a little reflection and realized my ambivalence towards it.            
   We have to study it in school no matter what continent we live on and acknowledge it's greatness if not it's superiority, but lets think about it for a moment. If we examine the nature of Western Civilization it is one of victors and victims of the weak and strong. Strength is determined in the western world by NUMBERS. Either you PHYSICALLY outnumber someone with other people or you have more of something else than he has e.g. gold, diamonds, weapons resistance to a particular disease.
         European history and the governments founded by those of European ancestry are about the survival of the fittest and the amassing of power by any means. This is hardly a secret, but I find it peculiar that whenever someone mentions these concepts they are immediately treated as pariahs. Niccolo Machiavelli outlined it in his work "The Prince" when he obsequiously attempted to curry favor with the Florentine power brokers that were the De Medici family. They found him a bit too ruthless for their liking and deemed him untrustworthy.  By contrast Charles Darwin mention the concept of "Natural Selection" i.e. "survival of the fittest" and was criticized openly. To this day there exist organizations whose sole purpose seems to be a dedication to Darwin's work.  Why? My theory is that the true nature of western civilization is the amassing of power and maintaining it by any means at ones disposal.
       Feudalism existed in Europe as well as Asia and in both those in charge used fear to govern those they considered beneath them. They kept them ignorant of the world around them and illiterate. The logic? The less people know the easier they are to control.  Look at any feudal society or modern dictatorship and you'll see a handful of landed literati lording over superstitious masses.

      In the United Kingdom a class system was created that was so strong that one of the questions one might possibly be asked (and judged by) remains "What does/did your father do?" Translation? Your self worth should be determined by how useful your family has been to those with money.  In the United States we claim to be a nation of laws where all are created equal, but ARE we?  The United States like MOST western nations was founded by very wealthy men who convinced the very poor to venture west to take land from the Indians then when that had been accomplished ventured forward, bought as much land as they could from them and took their places of power.
     Western civilization didn't CREATE genocide and slavery but certainly had no difficulty exploiting them as "the ends justified the means" as Machiavelli once stated.
   
        Is western civilization xenophobic, genocidal and racist?  I would argue no, because  exploiting racism does not make one racist, it's a mere strategy to attain an advantage.  What's racism? A system by which one group (usually a majority) asserts its superiority over a minority which is more than likely of a different race. If they're the SAME race but of different nationalities ethnically then it's nationalism, same horse...but of a different name.  Racism and nationalism were created by the powerful not because they hated anyone, but because they loved power. Consider something if you are the person in charge and paying pittances to your employees your fear is them uniting to demand fair wages. You need wedges between them to maintain power. If you get one group to resent another for something as stupid as the color of their skin or which arrived in the country first there will be no unity and you remain in power.
           If you're in a homogeneous society they you use religious beliefs or occupations and class differences but there must ALWAYS be a wedge. If you were to meet the richest people in the world you'll note that they would happily associate with rich people from any other culture before they embraced someone of their race and nationality who was impoverished.
          The rich harbor only one prejudice and it is against poverty and the poor which is very ironic. The rich detest the poor but NEED them. If one considers the comparative and superlative world in which we live, if there were no poor people, there would be no rich. If everyone had the exact same amount of EVERYTHING...there would be no classes. I'm not speaking out on behalf of "communism" as it doesn't work, but consider something, in order for what you have to be worth something you must control the supply thereof. If you don't have all of something or at least most of it you're just like everyone else whether that commodity is land, cattle, goats, gold, diamonds or pieces of paper with images on them.

           "What about political systems and elections"? Those with the money and power create political systems to give the masses who now have some degree of literacy the illusion of running society as a whole. It's like adults giving a noisy child a toy to silence them. When the Chinese Exclusion act was passed in 1882 it wasn't because wealthy Americans had issues with the Chinese any more than the late 19th century Jim Crow laws had anything with the wealthy and influential hating blacks. Both laws were examples of the power brokers allowing the poor to sow  divisions among themselves to their benefit both Jim Crow and the exclusion of the Chinese remained until both like slavery before them became economically unsustainable. There was a point in Australian history when there were literally bounties on the skulls of it's indigenous aboriginal people, but much as with America's natives there came a point when those pointing the guns when told by those signing paychecks that they had to realize that they had "won" and killing no longer served a purpose.
         
             In conclusion, I would tell those who wish to call western civilization "racist" to consider that racism and every other "ism" is a device used to maintain power. Prejudice and hated are easy tools to use on the simple minded because thinking for one's self requires effort.


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