The root cause of Africa's problems?

[Earthborn]

If you are going to make a false analogy, at least have it make sense. Between an apple and a head of lettuce, one of them will be superior, either in taste or nutritional content. Care to address the question instead of playing these games?

I think the analogy holds up pretty well. Whether you are talking about different nations, or apples and lettuce you will first have to answer the question: "Superior in what?". What aspect do you think the superiority needs to be measured in?

I am sure you can show that some cultures are superior to others in some aspects, others will be superior in other aspects. Some may be superior in many aspects, while others lag behind in many aspects.

However without stating explicitly what aspects you are interested in, the question whether one is superior to the other becomes meaningless; there wouldn't even be a metric to determine whether the things to be compared are "on the same level".

 

[Tony]

Get back to me when you feel like accurately describing what I post.

See Cleon run away from explaining himself:

Cleon: No modern anthropologist, sociologist, or historian buys into the idea of "superior vs. inferior cultures."

Tony: What are their metrics for concluding that all cultures are on the same level?

For anyone with the soundness of mind not to react like whiny teenage virgin. What reasoning do modern anthropologists, sociologists, or historians use to conclude that cultures are not superior or inferior to each other?

 

[A'isha]

How are you supposed to even determine a criteria for not comparing two things?

 

[Tony]

I think the analogy holds up pretty well. Whether you are talking about different nations, or apples and lettuce you will first have to answer the question: "Superior in what?". What aspect do you think the superiority needs to be measured in?

I am sure you can show that some cultures are superior to others in some aspects, others will be superior in other aspects. Some may be superior in many aspects, while others lag behind in many aspects.

However without stating explicitly what aspects you are interested in, the question whether one is superior to the other becomes meaningless; there wouldn't even be a metric to determine whether the things to be compared are "on the same level".

This is a good explanation. Modern anthropologists, sociologists, or historians might not even consider the superior/inferior question. Basically thinking it is irrelevant. If this is the case, I see no big issue. Although, I would say that when you consider things like science, secularism, human rights, treatment of women/children/minorities ect, that some cultures are superior than others.

 

[Tatyana]

Being divided up has little to do with corruption, bad governance, cronyism and so on. India was invented by the British and it's doing ok. Not perfect but not terrible. Pakistan is doing a lot worse. Reason? Culture matters.

No, the British did not invent India.

India invented modern civilisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization

The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt

 

[James Fox]

My guess would be that due to a complete lack of national identity for most of the known history of Africa the negative impact of xenophobic tribalism has been much more persistent in the face of modern ideas like democracy, universal education and the diminishment of religion as a social influence. Tribal warfare is decreasing in Africa and as education increases I would expect other social factors will also change such as a reduction of corruption and misogyny. Also culture can be appreciated but dismissed when it is clearly harmful, but this only happens when there is education and the freedom to express opinions that are not traditional/popular. I've worked with hundreds of Native American tribal members over the past 25 years and those who no longer considered their culture as tantamount to a religion were much more likely to be successful in life. I’ve heard tribal leaders tell their young people that to walk away from who they are and their culture is to die. I cannot imagine a more absurd notion given how integral slavery was to the tribes around where I live and how often war and infanticide was practiced in their culture. One local tribe had slaves as a very large percentage (some estimate 30%) of their population when they were recognized as a “Nation” by the US government. To this day tribal members all know if they and their neighbors were descended from real tribal members or from slaves who were made members by US government edict/treaty. This act created an underclass within the tribe that has done much worse than other tribal members due to persistent tribal/culture based prejudice. This same kind of thinking happens in many African countries today between different tribes located in the same country. And it is not racist to make this observation, nor is it racist to say that education and a more modern, scientific, and liberal view of the world is what will make a difference in the end.

 

[Virus]

No, the British did not invent India.

India invented modern civilisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization

The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt

No India before British demarcated nation state. Before that Mughal Empire + Maratha Empire + some other stuff.

Deal.

 

[DC]

If you are going to make a false analogy, at least have it make sense. Between an apple and a head of lettuce, one of them will be superior, either in taste or nutritional content. Care to address the question instead of playing these games?

culture is somewhat like taste indeed. and there is no superior taste. you like that taste others like another taste etc etc.

 

[Virus]

All progress in the last 500 years came from the West. It's superior. Deal.

Africa can prosper if they abandon their culture and adopt our culture. Anyone can proper if they adopt our culture. They might not want to hear it, it might to tough medicine, but it's true. And it's optimistic as opposed to the lefty, politically-correct view that prosperity is based on random, dumb-luck.

Look at the common thread that permeates what comes out of the left. People are passive subjects. Africans are passive subjects. They can't say otherwise because that's fundamentally how they see the world.

 

[Cleon]

All progress in the last 500 years came from the West. It's superior. Deal.

Well, that's convincing.

Africa can prosper if they abandon their culture

Uh, which culture?

and adopt our culture.

Again...?

Anyone can proper if they adopt our culture. They might not want to hear it, it might to tough medicine, but it's true. And it's optimistic as opposed to the lefty, politically-correct view that prosperity is based on random, dumb-luck.

I find it entertaining that nobody who believes in the "superior culture" garbage ever puts their own culture in the lower echelons.

 

[Humes fork]

culture is somewhat like taste indeed. and there is no superior taste. you like that taste others like another taste etc etc.

Yep, and some people are going to prefer the Taliban culture. I assume you got no problem with that.

 

[Humes fork]

I find it entertaining that nobody who believes in the "superior culture" garbage ever puts their own culture in the lower echelons.

Wrong.

 

[Humes fork]

No, the British did not invent India.

India invented modern civilisation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization

The Indus Valley is one of the world's earliest urban civilizations, along with its contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt

Are you also going to declare that ancient Greece was part of all of Europe?

Virus is right. India is as heterogenous (or close to) as Europe.

 

[Cleon]

Yep, and some people are going to prefer the Taliban culture. I assume you got no problem with that.

The Taliban is a culture? Here I thought it was a religious-political organization.

 

[Humes fork]

The Taliban is a culture? Here I thought it was a religious-political organization.

The Taliban have a culture, based largely on Pashtunwali and Deobandi Islam.

 

[DC]

Yep, and some people are going to prefer the Taliban culture. I assume you got no problem with that.

in other words, you don't even know what culture is. but you think yours is superior to all others. very telling.

some people like the taste of sea food, i hate it. but somehow i have no problem when people prefer sea food.

 

[Virus]

Bad culture leads to poverty, civil strife and abject misery. That's not "different", it's inferior.

 

[Ryokan]

Bad culture leads to poverty, civil strife and abject misery. That's not "different", it's inferior.

You're on your way to persuade me. You'd agree then, that, for example, according to your criteria quoted above, that Scandinavian culture is superior to American culture?

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Bad culture leads to poverty, civil strife and abject misery. That's not "different", it's inferior.

Correlation/causation fallacy.

 

[Virus]

It's hard to compare West with Wes. It's easier to compare West with non-West.