[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

That's simply not true. Europe was pulling away from Africa and the Middle East before colonialism got into full swing. This prosperity came from trade, science, commerce, literacy, private property, political systems that devolved power to a larger body of citizens than a tyrant and his court.

This is what what happens when people become politically active before (or instead of) learning history. People who see the world simply as narrative of Western exploitation are betraying their own ignorance of the world beyond the West, where warfare, competition, conquest and exploitation have been with us since the time of the pyramids.

India has always been both incredibly rich and incredibly poor, and its rulers were usually whichever invaders had most recently poured down from Central Asia. China was one of the most prosperous parts of the world for centuries. Was China richer than Indonesia because of exploitation?

Prosperity derives partly from the quirks of geography, but more importantly it derives from culture. In 1950, Korea was one of the most impoverished places on the planet. It had few resources, a population of oppressed peasants, and it was occupied by a succession of foreign powers, from China to Japan to Russia to the U.S. A brutal war was fought over its landscape, and left the country divided. Today, South Korea is one of the most affluent and advanced countries in the world. That isn't because of colonialism or exploitation. It's rich because it had, or developed, a culture geared towards innovation and industry.

Those who want to look at history and global affairs as a morality play, with villains and victims and saviors, aren't serious people. They subordinate the complex and serious world we live in to their own ideological agenda. It's understandable that 19-year-olds indulge in that kind of activism. They're learning to think independently, and are apt to defy any authority just because if feels good. People who still think that way at 39 never got past the adolescent rebellion stage of intellectual development.

god damn. did you drop your keyboard after that post?