3 ms·

Sure, and I'm sure you will find ardent supporters of North Korea regime, Hitler Germany, and Mao's regime. It's not a uniquely Western trend to want freedom,

Sure, and I'm sure you will find ardent supporters of North Korea regime, Hitler Germany, and Mao's regime. It's not a uniquely Western trend to want freedom, voting rights, and justice. It's also not uniquely Western to see the regime party members get super rich and get angry.

smallnamespace 8y ago
Are there non-Western peoples who want Western things? Sure, the West has been rich and powerful and dominated the world for the last 300 years. It would be incredible for other peoples to not try to emulate the West. But I think you're underestimating the extent to which universalism is a Western metacognitive bias that other cultures don't necessarily share [1]. The idea that there is one universal set of rules that everyone in the world can and should agree on, based on logic and rational consideration, is not really shared by all other cultures. The Chinese response that 'it may work for the West, but it's not for us', is not a specious cop-out (the Western response being typically what do you mean there are two sets of rules!?) but probably represents the honest opinion of a large fraction of the population. That's even before we get to the end result of democratic elections in many countries, where dictators are who the people choose. [1] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c742/1acd7e63519d22458b5a65a83d74f0400076.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c742/1acd7e63519d22458b5a65...
- yakuza00000 8y ago
  > Are there non-Western peoples who want Western things? you mean like Libyan revolution, Arab Spring, Taiwan and South Korean democracy, India democracy, Hong Kong protests, Tibet protests, etc?
wvenable 8y ago
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Now your house might not be entirely glass in this case, but it's not particularly sturdy either.

3 ms·

Sure, and I'm sure you will find ardent supporters of North Korea regime, Hitler Germany, and Mao's regime. It's not a uniquely Western trend to want freedom,

by yakuza00000 8y ago

smallnamespace 8y ago
Are there non-Western peoples who want Western things? Sure, the West has been rich and powerful and dominated the world for the last 300 years. It would be incredible for other peoples to not try to emulate the West. But I think you're underestimating the extent to which universalism is a Western metacognitive bias that other cultures don't necessarily share [1]. The idea that there is one universal set of rules that everyone in the world can and should agree on, based on logic and rational consideration, is not really shared by all other cultures. The Chinese response that 'it may work for the West, but it's not for us', is not a specious cop-out (the Western response being typically what do you mean there are two sets of rules!?) but probably represents the honest opinion of a large fraction of the population. That's even before we get to the end result of democratic elections in many countries, where dictators are who the people choose. [1] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c742/1acd7e63519d22458b5a65a83d74f0400076.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c742/1acd7e63519d22458b5a65...
- yakuza00000 8y ago
  > Are there non-Western peoples who want Western things? you mean like Libyan revolution, Arab Spring, Taiwan and South Korean democracy, India democracy, Hong Kong protests, Tibet protests, etc?
wvenable 8y ago
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Now your house might not be entirely glass in this case, but it's not particularly sturdy either.