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There’s a lot in Western culture which is borrowed from their prior conquerors. Islamic culture, in particular, left a significant mark on Western thought [1].

by nis0s 2y ago

There’s a lot in Western culture which is borrowed from their prior conquerors. Islamic culture, in particular, left a significant mark on Western thought [1]. In general, I think it benefits societies to create humane cultures because all populations are subject to a normal distribution of individual capabilities. If you create a culture where someone can claim “superiority” simply by belonging to a certain group, it’s detrimental to the prolonged health and survival of that society. That said, I think it’s gauche and irresponsible for security products company CEOs to make statements like this because it makes you sound jingoistic whereas your outward demeanor, at the very least, should just be oriented towards favoring defense. The goal shouldn’t be to unnecessarily alarm your supposed opponents, that’s counter to your defense goals. [1] https://archive-yaleglobal.yale.edu/role-arab-islamic-world-rise-west-implications-contemporary-trans-cultural-relations https://archive-yaleglobal.yale.edu/role-arab-islamic-world-...

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> it makes you sound jingoistic whereas your outward demeanor, at the very least, should just be oriented towards favoring defense His customers are currently quite jingoistic.
favorited 2y ago
> Islamic culture, in particular, left a significant mark on Western thought And yet 72% of surveyed Republicans were opposed to Arabic numerals being taught in schools. https://www.the-independent.com/news/arabic-numerals-survey-prejudice-bias-survey-research-civic-science-a8918256.html https://www.the-independent.com/news/arabic-numerals-survey-...
- hoboweasel 2y ago
  They're not Arabic. They're Indian. https://www.quora.com/Arent-Arabic-numbers-actually-Hindu https://www.quora.com/Arent-Arabic-numbers-actually-Hindu
  - favorited 2y ago
    The numeral system may be, but the numerals themselves were introduced to Europeans by the writings of Muslim mathematicians like al-Khwārizmī.
gsf_emergency 2y ago
Yes!! Finally someone who gets it. I am not being facetious when I say that meritocracy is inherently inhumane. As to prolonged health: I'm not sure western civilization, or indeed any culture which reflexively valuate humans even... will be able to consistently embrace universal humanism (humanity?) without first suffering paroxysms. Maybe a more practical question is, how to organize a humane police force :)? Don't know if Palantir is working on that? (Not sarcasm)
- nis0s 2y ago
  > humane police force Societies are innately tribal, so I think realistically such a project will devolve into something inhumane in any society, regardless of perceived racial or religious homogeneity, because of inter-group competitions. Moreover, no one really ever trusts the policing apparatus in any state, regardless of its true nature or intention, so there will always be resistance to any such policing. However, people are likely to trust culture, and ideas related to that culture, with the caveat that there is some principled approach to updating laws per the needs of the population as conditions change; the latter half, principled updating, is currently missing from democracies as the current modus operandi is updating laws by request via petitioning or lobbying, so whoever is the loudest or most well-funded wins. The end result is that there is discontent because democracy by favoritism, or policing, is not a democracy. If the goal is to maintain cultural and national stability, then governance structures should be flexible enough to absorb shocks from changing cultural viewpoints. Practically, that looks like what is commonly derided as centrism, or essentially, not holding allegiances to political tribes, but instead to a sense of upholding cultural and national strength. So, I think instead of building literal policing structures, which will always be inherently fragile, democratic nations are better off focusing on building a sense of national cultural identity for heterogeneous populations, without any particular focus on race or religion.

by nis0s 2y ago

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> it makes you sound jingoistic whereas your outward demeanor, at the very least, should just be oriented towards favoring defense His customers are currently quite jingoistic.

favorited 2y ago

> Islamic culture, in particular, left a significant mark on Western thought And yet 72% of surveyed Republicans were opposed to Arabic numerals being taught in schools. https://www.the-independent.com/news/arabic-numerals-survey-prejudice-bias-survey-research-civic-science-a8918256.html https://www.the-independent.com/news/arabic-numerals-survey-...

hoboweasel 2y ago
They're not Arabic. They're Indian. https://www.quora.com/Arent-Arabic-numbers-actually-Hindu https://www.quora.com/Arent-Arabic-numbers-actually-Hindu
- favorited 2y ago
  The numeral system may be, but the numerals themselves were introduced to Europeans by the writings of Muslim mathematicians like al-Khwārizmī.

gsf_emergency 2y ago

Yes!! Finally someone who gets it. I am not being facetious when I say that meritocracy is inherently inhumane. As to prolonged health: I'm not sure western civilization, or indeed any culture which reflexively valuate humans even... will be able to consistently embrace universal humanism (humanity?) without first suffering paroxysms. Maybe a more practical question is, how to organize a humane police force :)? Don't know if Palantir is working on that? (Not sarcasm)

nis0s 2y ago
> humane police force Societies are innately tribal, so I think realistically such a project will devolve into something inhumane in any society, regardless of perceived racial or religious homogeneity, because of inter-group competitions. Moreover, no one really ever trusts the policing apparatus in any state, regardless of its true nature or intention, so there will always be resistance to any such policing. However, people are likely to trust culture, and ideas related to that culture, with the caveat that there is some principled approach to updating laws per the needs of the population as conditions change; the latter half, principled updating, is currently missing from democracies as the current modus operandi is updating laws by request via petitioning or lobbying, so whoever is the loudest or most well-funded wins. The end result is that there is discontent because democracy by favoritism, or policing, is not a democracy. If the goal is to maintain cultural and national stability, then governance structures should be flexible enough to absorb shocks from changing cultural viewpoints. Practically, that looks like what is commonly derided as centrism, or essentially, not holding allegiances to political tribes, but instead to a sense of upholding cultural and national strength. So, I think instead of building literal policing structures, which will always be inherently fragile, democratic nations are better off focusing on building a sense of national cultural identity for heterogeneous populations, without any particular focus on race or religion.