4 ms·
Typical self-congratulatory anglo-conservative clap trap. No one outside of a very small group of wealthy Britons and Americans (and, alright, some wealthy educ
by mtts 13y ago
Typical self-congratulatory anglo-conservative clap trap. No one outside of a very small group of wealthy Britons and Americans (and, alright, some wealthy educated descendants from the former colonies) could possibly share such an immensely bowdlerized narrative of anglo history.
The freedom he praises is the freedom of the very rich and well-connected to impose their success on the less fortunate, be they poor sheep farmers in Scotland who saw their commons taken away by enclosures, indentured servants who were shipped off to the colonies in America or the inhabitants of India who had their livelihood taken away from them when textile manufacturers from Manchester forced the destruction of their local economy. (Notice, by the way, how this essay makes no mention of Indians other than the 2.4 million Indians who were pressed into service in the trenches in World War I and who, for the most part, suffered terribly to defend a country that had pretty much ruined their own.)
For this rich mercantile elite, yes, the anglo system is superior, which is why its ideals have now spread across the entire world (even in China there is now an elite that dresses in suits and engages in trade unencumbered by rules and regulations that protect the millions that are pressed into working in their factories under appalling conditions).
For the vast majority of people, however, the system is a disaster. It has ruined communal forms of organisation that protected the unfortunate and the weak. It has destroyed perfectly viable local economies and it has reduced millions of people to little more than debt bondage.
It takes a special kind of myopia to gloss over all of that and proclaim, like this article does, that the anglo system is superior because it promotes free trade and rule of law for the rich.
- alexeisadeski3 13y agoActually, the Latin political systems are quite obviously better for the powerful, as the weak tradition of rule of law and equality under the law allows them to more easily exploit the political process for their own gain.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- javert 13y agoBetter to be a middle class American than a Latin despot. (Back when America had a middle class. Now, we have our own despots.)
- alexeisadeski3 13y agoPretty sure the despot gets laid more.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- SqMafia 13y agoI would be careful with "even in China there is now an elite that dresses in suits and engages in trade unencumbered by rules and regulations that protect the millions that are pressed into working in their factories under appalling conditions". The adoption of suits is just a fashion thing. China hasn't really developed its own sense of fashion coming out of the Mao era. It's not a sign of wholesale embrace of Western culture and ideals. On the contrary most Chinese are quite proud of their history and culture. What China has embraced since Deng Xiaoping was the pragmatic parts of Western society, i.e. methods of doing business, trade, and manufacturing. China never really had a system of laws and regulations to protect its workers because it was never in a situation until now where it had millions working in dangerous industrial situations. Until recent decades, China was still largely agrarian. In short, China didn't cast off its old ways and embraced Angloculture as much as it borrow bits and pieces it found useful. It remains to be seem if it can borrow pieces without taking everything and still have it work. China is a dangerous counter to the narrative of the superiority of Western or Anglo ideals. If China is indeed successful in the long term with its mix of traditional Chinese authoritarianism and Western style capitalism, then other people and countries would see essays like this one as nonsense.
- primelens 13y ago> Typical self-congratulatory anglo-conservative clap trap. No one outside of a very small group of wealthy Britons and Americans (and, alright, some wealthy educated descendants from the former colonies) could possibly share such an immensely bowdlerized narrative of anglo history. I couldn't agree more. I have immense regard for the development of the British political system over the last millennium but an account that distills out this fairytale narrative from the immense oppression - of Britain's own, poor and working people, of the colonialism and slavery - that accompanied it is a dishonest and blinkered view of history.
- eevilspock 13y agoWhy do I feel like someone posted the equivalent of extremist Tea Party crap (or Micheal Moore crap for that matter), and we all took the (troll) bait? Just read through the back and forths herein. I thought Hacker News was smarter than this. I thought I was. :( We have better things to do. More intelligent things to disagree with.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- aminok 13y ago>For this rich mercantile elite, yes, the anglo system is superior, which is why its ideals have now spread across the entire world (even in China there is now an elite that dresses in suits and engages in trade unencumbered by rules and regulations that protect the millions that are pressed into working in their factories under appalling conditions). >For the vast majority of people, however, the system is a disaster. The common people living in the Anglosphere are much better off than those where the institutions that protect property rights didn't exist. I am not originally from an Anglosphere country and yet believe that the econo-political structure that they were first to successfully implement had tremendous advantages over anything before or since.
- EliRivers 13y agoThe freedom he praises is the freedom of the very rich and well-connected to impose their success on the less fortunate Yet despite this, the people who are not the very rich and well-connected are far more secure in the Anglophone world. I've lived in various places around the world and, whilst it's always possible for everything you have to be taken from you, this is far less likely in the UK, the US, Singapore etc than in Peru, Argentina, China, Russia and so on. Whilst it's true that the law works better for the rich everywhere, it's less true in the US, the UK, Singapore etc etc. It takes a special kind of myopia Much like your myopia. The Anglophone world isn't perfect. It's a lot better than the vast majority of the rest of the world. (With apologies to Western Europe, where things are also pretty good :p )