- 21 May 2019 10:39
#15006300
You’re second point about the fact that Europeans were building cathedrals without external influence is a neat idea and fairly well argued but I’m sure you know that the Roman Catholic Church/Vatican did sponsor the spread of Christianity through the Holy Roman Empire, the Vatican did invest a large amount of funds in the destruction of pagan traditions and the development of Christian monuments such as cathedrals, so there was external influence in that sense.
On your third point the definition of developed will change depending on what level of progress the most developed nations have achieved and it’s all relative.
SolarCross wrote:They are common myths which are fashionable now particularly; I am not singling you out really. And because they are common now they are less visible because we are standing on them. So here are three myths which I believe is the invisible foundation of your cute little narrative:
1. The progressive theory of history.
- The prog theory of history rests on two (obviously) false assumptions that the future is as set as the past and that the future is better than the past.
2. Everybody is basically the same it is only the -isms that differ.
- I recall someone here some time ago "proving" that communism was better than capitalism because Communist China was more technological than Capitalist Kenya as if the average iq of the Chinese 105 in comparison with the average iq of Kenya 80 was not the more pertinent reason.
This is what I mean by saying "Africa is less developed now than Europe was a thousand years ago" because a thousand years ago europeans had the ingenuity and will to build cathedrals and all manner of tech and social practices even without an external example. A thousand years ago the foundations of modern europe were already being laid. No such thing is happening in Africa even now and probably never will.
3. There is an end to development.
- people tend to categorise countries as "developing" or "developed" as if development was a place you reach and then there is nothing left to do and you can stop. This idea is at least as old as I am but when I was born there was no internet now there is and it was "developed" countries that invented, first adopted, developed it and were radically changed by it. There is no end to development and in fact the countries described as "developing" are invariably developing the least and at the slowest pace while the "developed" countries are developing the most and fastest.
You’re second point about the fact that Europeans were building cathedrals without external influence is a neat idea and fairly well argued but I’m sure you know that the Roman Catholic Church/Vatican did sponsor the spread of Christianity through the Holy Roman Empire, the Vatican did invest a large amount of funds in the destruction of pagan traditions and the development of Christian monuments such as cathedrals, so there was external influence in that sense.
On your third point the definition of developed will change depending on what level of progress the most developed nations have achieved and it’s all relative.