European moral inferiority

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't think European immorality is any stronger or weaker than any other culture's immorality (at least if you compare class societies). Rather, "high tech" weapons (and sometimes organizational techniques) have allowed the greater _expression_ of European immorality than other immoralities. (One evil person can kill millions, by dropping the Bomb, whereas in the "good old daze," one evil person could only kill a few hundred.) And capitalism (which started in W. Europe)  encouraged the spread of European rule and the use of that technology. It seems that CB is letting capitalism off the hook in order to blame one ethnic group over another.
JD

 

^^^^^^

 

CB: Well, no. A culture that goes around destroying and conquering other cultures and peoples is morally inferior to those other cultures.

 

Surely, you are not saying that all "ethnic" groups have the same responsibility for capitalism. That's the initial point. Which "ethnic" group started capitalism, and why did that group start it and not other groups ? The answer is that the Western European "ethnic" group started capitalism.   If capitalism is on the hook, then Western Europeans are on the hook ( and capitalism _is_ on the hook).

 

I guess I should add there is no such thing as "capitalism" without the global conquest. Capitalism is inherently imperialistic.

 

We know Europeans have conquered the globe like no other group in history. It's not in their genes. It's got to be because of their culture and history.

 

Put it this way. Most of the literature debates why the Western Europeans started capitalism, and other cultures didn't.  What is agreed to among most discussants in the literature is that capitalism _did_ start in Western Europe.  Most discussions assume some type of "superiority" in this capitalism because of material abundance it has brought. It is technologically superior, but _morality_ has to do with how people are treated, not the level of technological development.

 

Capitalism has screwed over the most people in history. This means that the Western Europeans' culture, the bearer of capitalism, is pegged as morally inferior rather than superior to other cultures.