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