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It would be helpful to characterize them as "democratic" ideals - not "western" ideals. There is nothing intrinsically "western" about human rights. In fact,
by koheripbal 4y ago
It would be helpful to characterize them as "democratic" ideals - not "western" ideals. There is nothing intrinsically "western" about human rights.
In fact, calling them "western" ideas is exactly how autocracies belittle them to their people.
- fiftyfifty 4y agoI agree, the term "Western Ideals" doesn't quite fit but it does go beyond democratic ideals which is why I didn't use that term. There are other aspects like a free market economy that extend way beyond a democratically elected government. I'm certainly open to a new term to describe it.
- koheripbal 4y agoFree Market Economics is even LESS tied to the west in modern times than democracy. There are very very few countries that haven't dropped centralized gov't controlled economies - even in Asia.
- nine_k 4y ago> There is nothing intrinsically "western" about human rights. It would be interesting if you could give an example of similar ideas from seriously non-Western cultures. Say, Asia has plenty of cultures, a number of them with highly developed, original schools of philosophy.
- koheripbal 4y agoI'm not sure what you mean by "similar ideas" to human rights, but with regard to democracies in Asia: Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Mongolia, Taiwan, East Timor, Micronesia
- jimbokun 4y agoBefore or after they were majorly influenced by the West?
- Proven 4y ago
- koheripbal 4y agoRight, but now you are talking about history. It's like calling our numbering system, the arabic numbering system. Sure - that's where it comes from historically, but now it's just OUR numbering system. Calling democracy a "western" ideology makes it sound like it's not as relevant to eastern cultures - which is silly because it's now practiced widely in east asia.
- jimbokun 4y agoYeah, it's important to distinguish the two concepts. The philosophies and ideas are of Western origin. But implementing those ideas is not restricted to people ethically descended from people from Western countries.
- nsonha 4y agoyou are right, "western ideas" would be all theory, all talk and very little regard to practicality, such as Marxism, the Domino theory, Pax America, pretend democracy in South Korea, "human right" concerns that's comes from your mouth, instead of the actual humans you're trying to save.