- 17 Jun 2008 01:43
#1561550
I've been thinking a lot about the rise of commercial and industrial civilization in the West and it spreading to the world. Has it been on balance a good thing?
A few bad things it has caused:
* The Atlantic slave trade
* The concentration of power in Europe/Japan (colonialism)
* A crescendo in the means of destruction (industrialization of war (WW1/WW2)) capping out with atomic brinskmanship
* Bureaucratization, urbanization, atomization, and depersonalization of society
* The 'Satanic Mill' and sweatshops of industrial revolutions
One could probably go on. On the other hand, without it, we wouldn't have the luxury of even typing on our keyboards, and would probably be scratching the Earth on some farm, with rotten teeth and recovering from smallpox, hoping the winter wouldn't be too harsh and no warlords come our way.
(Incidentally, we get to argue about where to draw the 'modernity' line. Do we consider unhygienic plague-ridden European medieval cities more 'mordern' than hunter-gatherer societies?)
A few bad things it has caused:
* The Atlantic slave trade
* The concentration of power in Europe/Japan (colonialism)
* A crescendo in the means of destruction (industrialization of war (WW1/WW2)) capping out with atomic brinskmanship
* Bureaucratization, urbanization, atomization, and depersonalization of society
* The 'Satanic Mill' and sweatshops of industrial revolutions
One could probably go on. On the other hand, without it, we wouldn't have the luxury of even typing on our keyboards, and would probably be scratching the Earth on some farm, with rotten teeth and recovering from smallpox, hoping the winter wouldn't be too harsh and no warlords come our way.
(Incidentally, we get to argue about where to draw the 'modernity' line. Do we consider unhygienic plague-ridden European medieval cities more 'mordern' than hunter-gatherer societies?)
A stubborn porcupine: heredity & nationhood. Meditate, brother!
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