Poor, Edmund W wrote:
Christiaan complained:
Just to clarify, I never argued that these people
died and suffered
_because_ of these ideals. My argument is that our culture has
extensively used and abused such ideals simply to make its membership
feel good about itself when collectively implementing the opposite
(imperialism, intolerance of other economic models, war, etc.).
Cognitive dissonance often being the outcome when actuality comes to
light.
If you think Western Civilization has not lived up to its ideals,
please write a Wikipedia article comparing and contrasting Western
ideals with Western actions.
Well, its good advice, but my point wasn't to tell you all why I think
the West falls short of its rhetoric. My point was simply to make
people aware that at least some of us find comments such as Geoff's
ethnocentric and offensive. People can take from that what they like;
that an intense discussion ensued is not surprising but it wasn't my
aim.
Christiaan