3 ms·
> What is important is maintaining the institutions that have been wildly successful in mediating conflict between diverse groups This is indeed very important
by 0815test 8y ago
> What is important is maintaining the institutions that have been wildly successful in mediating conflict between diverse groups
This is indeed very important, but "empathy", while not such an institution, is a baseline cultural requirement to make these institutions feasible and sustainable in the longer run. There's not much ambiguity here; intensely tribal, closed and corrupt societies do a lot worse at managing conflicts (e.g. consider the Middle East, and why violent conflicts flare up so often there), not just empathy.
- mikeash 8y agoHow does this explain Europe, which was the most frequently and destructively violent place in the world for hundreds of years until fairly recently?
- 0815test 8y ago"Most frequently and destructively violent" seems like European exceptionalism to me. Yes there's been lots of wars in Europe, but it's not like other parts of the world have been free of conflict, it's just that us Western folks don't know as much about them.
- mikeash 8y agoI think that’s true if you look at a broader range of history, but if you look at the couple of centuries up through 1945, I don’t buy it. What other region during that period had something to rival the Napoleonic wars, the World Wars, and all the other European wars of that period? It’s difficult enough to find one conflict to rival either World War (the Taiping Rebellion comes to mind, and the Asian side of the Second World War, but that’s it), let alone enough wars in the same area to match the whole period. I am happy to be educated if I’m wrong, though!
- turtlecloud 8y agoTaiping and pacific theater were influenced by western thought. Taiping was led by a religious Jesus inspired fanatic. Japan was just copying Germany.