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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: What does the west do right?
Just curious
1. Cure diseases. Polio, Rabies, Smallpox
2. Freedom of religion, democracy, free expression
3. Art, Music, Literature (sure you students know who Du Fu and Li Bai are, but do they actually enjoy it?)
4. Inventions and technology (All of electronics, physics, and so on )
5. Top level universities
6. The Welfare state
7. Environmental protection
8. Equal rights for women
Yes, I am certain the women in the west didn't have the bones in their feet broken for centuries. Nor do we amputate their clitoris. Or throw acid on them.
Sinobear:
And that is your definition of "equal rights"? No control over their own reproductive systems? No absolute, legal right to equal pay for equal work? The continued sexualization of young girls in the media and propagation of sexual stereotypes? Are females 50% of elected leaders (or more, according to female/male population ratios?)
Not arguing the gist of your post, just the idealist representation of the west that you are trying to portray.
Lord_hanson:
Compared to other regions in the world I think women have it easy in the west. They also have the freedom to complain should they believe they are being treated unfairly and laws to enforce this. The western system is not perfect, but the nest thing about it is that it aims to better itself. It doesn't settle for good enough.
diverdude1:
to sinobear, I am up-voting Lord Hanson. rasknik never said it was perfect. but , yes, LH sums it up pretty well.
# 2 is strongly damaged by the spying policies of some idiots. For sure there are some really good moves by west with respect to humanity but we should not forget they violated the same as well.
Every region has its own literature, no doubt the English literature is great( I am in love with it) but all the great literature was produced by Greeks and Latin centuries ago when there was no concept of 'East and West'. The English literature is based on these two mainly. Its only about the taste for you may like rock and I prefer classical.
Do not look in to the things with eye....You forgot the latest weapons of mass destruction, tools for spying over, extra judicial killings and lust for power are also some of the defects in the history of mankind brought to us by some western countries.
Every society is open to criticism and it depends on the 'critic' solely. Positive criticism can result in a perfect society but that's a rare gem.
Shining_brow:
I'm sure this will come as a shock to you, but the idea of 'the west' doesn't exclusively refer to 'Merika.
There are many western nations where the freedoms listed in #2 are still fairly alive and well (or, if not still, brought into practice through legal changes over the last few decades/centuries).
And those spying agencies you refer to have a fairly small power/effect.
thefidu881:
You are right Shining as I too realized the very moment I answered the question and down here you can find my second comment asking OP to explain 'West' properly. I hope you can find my concern down here regarding classification of west. I do like the positive things introduced by west even if it is America. But I do think of Merika and West as two different entities on the ground of many differences between the two.
By the way what is your definition of 'West' ? Does it contain the US or only is Europe for I find them different in some aspect on the grounds of your speculations.
Sounds like a bad case of masturbation to me. You won't win the minds and the hearth like this.
Yup, innovation is rewarded more in the West than anywhere, and have good educational environment, for now. Freedom are eroding, and wealth inequality may harm the good points.
Environmental protection, well... Everywhere I look, I see people borrowing from the future to live irresponsibly in the present, no exceptions. Some places are "less worse" than others, that's it. It's easy to be clean when you put your pollution off-shore.
Humanism. Yes, *some* countries are still leading the way, but they are not vocal about it and are rarely looked as an example. I wonder why Nordic countries got little press.
#2. should be "freedom FROM religion" shouldn't it.
Dramatically the 'General' always run away from his own posts. I am thinking of aborting any further arguments over his posts for I do not like 'Generals' who flee from the 'field'.
I am thinking if we need a "What does Scandinavia do right" we got it all, equal pay, female leaders.
Sometimes I think the West is not where I come from. Maybe I am from the North... fits the Santa avatar too.
DrMonkey:
Damn right. They don't make much fuss, but the education level, the wealth distribution, resource usage, public transparency, social support, etc. are ahead from louder contenders. And "Norway has petrol, so it's easy" is a poor argument, Nigeria, Kuwait, Azerbaijan and many others also have this kind of advantages.
Scandinavian:
gotta remember Norway does not splurge the oil money on crazy crap like really tall towers, but saves up for a rainy day (which in Norway is very often although oftentimes the rain comes down in frozen form)
I assert that we do SPACECRAFT rather well...
http://www.space.com/22729-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space.html
Europe has the healthcare / tax thing sorted.
You vote for us and give us the power to extract tax, we give you free healthcare. That sort of thing.
People voted for Obama because he said he would do the same in America. See how that is turning out. It sort of makes a joke of democracy.
So, to answer the OP, Europe does the health "cradle to grave", and the welfare state right.
America sort of fails on both.
I put it down to the Russian Revolution. When the old western ruling class had a real chance of being machined gunned down, they had to compromise. And strangely enough, that compromise grew into a fantastic socialist system that even the socialists can't match.
And I am a socialist by the way
mike168229:
As I was reminded sometime ago - America is not a democracy, it's a Republic.
Scandinavian:
Yup, Europe even legislates the curve a cucumber is allowed to have, man I hate the curved Chinese cucumbers, but I hate even more that Chinese people think the straight cucumbers are grown "artificially"
-The Cucumber Professor (man there is a good forum nick for future use)
Rasklnik, you're right, we - the West - do many things right, but this idea will get squashed, as it is now, on an anti-western website like this. Let the macroeconomics play out because frankly, the West is swimming in 'Win' no matter what.
Regardless, thanks for posting this topic.
Any intellectual knows what "The West" means...and yes obviously it is larger than the USA as the said entity is not even 300 years old...but the western tradition is over 2000 years old.
thefidu881:
intellectual like you? Sorry I am not... define West properly