[WikiEN-l] occidental pride and presumptuousness

Thu Aug 26 06:00:35 UTC 2004

On 26 Aug 2004, at 04:31, wikien-l-request at Wikipedia.org wrote:

>> And if I may allowed to be chauvanistic for a moment, I think this 
>> ideal
>> is a valuable part of Western Civilization that needs to be taught to 
>> the
>> rest of the world. We should respect other people's POV, we should be
>> willing to explain our own POV, & that there should be a fair & 
>> beneficial
>> exchange between them.

I'm not trying to get into a political argument here, but I would like 
to note my objection to the above assumptions in the strongest possible 
terms. I believe they are:

- historically untrue,
- (on balance) also absurdly false as regards the present,
- anachronistically missionaristic and
- the positive aspects favoured in this paragraph are the very 
ANTITHESIS of how occidental civilization has historically conducted 
and continues to conduct itself.

Occidental civilization as we know it is largely based on the 
underlying morality of monotheistic religion(s). As such it is deeply 
rooted in a moral code that has at its very heart the presumption of an 
existing all-encompassing principle of GOOD and EVIL. This 
ever-polarizing world view is one of dimensional reduction and not 
particularly well suited to permit many faceted multi-aspect 
deliberations and relations. In fact, among all world views and 
civilizatory movements, it probably stands tall among the absolute 
WORST suited ones.