Is Western culture "superior" to Arabic cultures?

I think you've just described how most societies work. It's just a matter of what the "dominant culture" uses its power for. Some use it to suppress alternative viewpoints; others use it to enforce tolerance of alternative viewpoints.

In reality, every culture does both. It's more a question of where the balance lies.

I would also point out that "tolerance of sub-cultures" is exactly what many Western conservatives feel is undermining the pillars of "Western culture." Thus demonstrating again that any blanket statement about Western culture must be carefully made.

- - - Updated - - -

Well said.

 

What about Muslims living in the West who wish to perform genital mutilation on their female infants? Will you tolerate it or ban it?

 

I see. So in your own personal opinion, what factors/criteria would you use to compare and decide which cultures are superior and which are inferior? If such a comparison is even possible at all.

 

That place is a desert, with no resources other than oil. The book is a lot more than my synopsis, its actually very long book. And we can't forget that for centuries they were invaded by foreign countries and repressed. In more modern times, they live in poverty, under ruthless leaders that live lavishly while they struggle and fill their heads with hate and ignorance (look at all the people in this country that believe in nonsense and are very hateful and violent), with foreign countries constantly meddling in their affairs. All that in many countries there have kept the people down, spent generations teaching violence and hatred for the West, forced to live under strict religious rules, and brainwashed.

Look at Afghanistan in the 1960s adn 70s, look a pictures at how free their women were, dressing in skirts and like Americans. Then it was ravished with war, left in rumbles, and the taliban rose up. look at it now.

And lets not ignore the effect the US has on it as well. The US helped overthrow a democratically elected government in Iran, and this has lead to the rise of the Mullahs and we know how that is going. We supported Saddam because he was enemy of Iran, then when he no longer cooperated, invaded his country and created an entire cluster F that is the middle east today. We supported bin laden when he was fighting against the Russians in Afghanistan. We helped create that culture, there is no denying that

 

It is more expressive. You can express emotions, ideas, spirituality in Western music that can't be expressed in non-Western music. And extremely noble ideas have been so expressed (along with extremely ignoble ones, it is true). I, by cultivating a taste in Western music, have experienced depths in the human spirit which are inaccessible to those not so cultivated, including you yourself I expect.

That such things are not "popular" is only to be expected. The movie "Dumb and Dumber" was extremely popular, but not particularly edifying.

It depends on what you want to express. Modern designs and Baroque designs express different ideas and each has its place. Western culture has a much greater vocabulary than other cultures.

A connoisseur ought not be swayed by what is merely fashionable at the moment.

Computer programming is not an artistic discipline, but an engineering one.

It was not condescension; rather it was pity. It is a terrible thing not to have discrimination, to be unable to distinguish greatness from mediocrity. And for what? Political correctness?

 

I am pretty sure the Renaissance was triggered by Greek scholars who taught the Italians Greek and brought with them the original Greek texts. According to the wikipedia:

More advanced than the Byzantines? I doubt it. And Wikipedia claims:

'[Gothic architecture] evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Originating in 12th-century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as Opus Francigenum ("French work") with the term Gothic first appearing during the later part of the Renaissance.'

 

They started out barbarians and they remain barbarians.

But of course it is all the fault of the US. You don't even have to study history to know that. All the bad things in this world is the fault of the US. They taught you that in school, right?

Muslims can hardly be held responsible for their own actions.

 

That "internet bravery" you observed mostly proved my point.

That was my experience in the Boston area. Very hostile, aggressive, rude people.

 

Islamist culture is homophobic, misogynist...something many Conservatives in The West truly envy.

 

The Medici Bank was established in 1397, and Cosimo the Elder commissioned David from Donatello in 1430 and became gran maestro of Florence in 1434. So by the time of the sacking of Constantinople in 1453, the Renaissance was up and going, but was accelerated with the influx of talent from that.

Forgive me, I probably used the wrong term. Maybe the right term was "Renaissance" architecture.

The very great impact that the Islamic world, in its turn, had on Western construction is perhaps best demonstrated by the Italian Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi‘s dome for the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Cathedral of Florence.
http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/vol2011no3/archive/grupico.pdf

This was completed in 1420, BTW.

 

So, you have nothing to refute my claim, just spout false statements with nothing to back it up. So, you deny that the CIA helped overthrow the Shah? Remember the storming of the embassy in Iran? Gee, why were they pissed when they put the Shah in power when they had democracy. Did the US not support and provide weapons to saddam (ones he gassed the kurds with?) Did the US not train bin laden to fight against the Russians? THese are well documented facts.

And don't make up comments I never made like everything is the fault of the US, because you have no facts to argue your point. I pointed to numerous facts as to why US has direct involvement in that region. I forgot to add, Saudi Arabia is one of the most barbaric countries, and our government is alliedwith them, paying them lots of money for oil, and they are pretty barbaric.

If I recall, our country is pretty damn barbaric as well, and seemingly still is from comments I hear from people like you. It wasn't that long ago black people were hanged, barbaric, now? Gay people beaten and killed. Women sexually harassed, raped and beaten by their husbands and for a while raping your wife was not illegal. What our soldiers did in Vietnam was pretty barbaric as well. Torturing people not that long ago, pretty barbaric. We see other barbaric violence in this country today.

We just have the benefit of a strong economy, a strong government (thanks constitution!), justice, and stability. It's easy to not be barbaric when you live in a country like that, and were lucky to be born in such a nice country. You could easily be a member of ISIS if you were born in one of those war torn countries and all you knew were warlords and dictators brainwashing you to hate the West. You might be familiar with that concept, being brainwashed by Fox to hate Islam and minorities and many other people

 

Why would I tolerate that? Maiming of minors is illegal, as it should be -- they cannot give informed consent.

If they want to do it to themselves once their adults, that's their business. But they can't do it to their kids.

 

I call bull(*)(*)(*)(*). You can express emotions and ideas in non-Western music.

Again with the condescension.

I took piano for 12 years, and cello for 5. My children play viola, violin, cello, ukulele and piano. One of my favorite composers to play is Clementi. I'm well familiar with classical music.

I agree that "popular" is not the same as "good." That said, music that only appeals to a small population of snobs does not objectively demonstrate that it is "better". Only that is has a niche audience.

Okay.

Agreed.

It is a creative discipline. But the point was to show that flexibility is not an absolute good. It comes at a cost. And thus is not always better.

What I think is "great" likely differs from what you think is "great", on a great many subjects. I'm something of a beer connoisseur, for instance. Maybe you are, too. Even so, our tastes in beer could be quite different, and what you consider great beer I might consider swill, and vice versa. So who is right? I see no objective measure of beer greatness that doesn't involve a large amount of personal preference. I dislike lagers generally, for instance. There are some lagers that I can appreciate are well-built, but I still think they suck as a drink. None of them would make my list of great beers, except in a subcategory of "well-built sucky beers."

Put another way, technical complexity or accomplishment does not necessarily mean the result is drinkable (or listenable). Great music is more than the sum of its parts. And the things you have claimed for Western music vs. non-Western music no more guarantees greatness than putting the highest-quality ingredients and care into brewing a beer flavored with cow manure.

 

Not saying that you would. Just pointing that this would make our society "un-confident", because in doing so we would be not tolerating a certain aspect of one of the sub-cultures in our society.

 

Do you personally think the Western culture is superior to non-Western cultures though? I am not saying this could be objectively measured or anything like that. Just want to know your personal opinion.

 

Islam has been (*)(*)(*)(*)ting on this rock longer than the US has been in existence.

 

He didn't say non-Western music. He said Arabic music. I call bull(*)(*)(*)(*) on your bull(*)(*)(*)(*).

 

But not as many and not as well.

Are you familiar with Arabic music?

Find me a piece of Arabic music with one tenth, heck one hundreth the emotive power of The Rite of Spring.

You don't seem to think any music is actually "good." You refuse to make any such distinctions. A drunk banking on trash cans and belting out "My Sharona", off key, is apparently as good as any other music. It is all subjective, right? I mean the drunk is enjoying it, so its all good.

 

Hmm. Not really, the key element of Western culture is the acceptance that others are free to have their own cultures, not that all cultures are equal.... the idea that the culture of a tribe of cannibals is equal to western culture is not one of the tenets of Western beliefs, not even close.

On a side note, libs who never criticize the Arabs and other non-western cultures and routinely excuse their worst possible atrocities exhibit the bigotry of low expectation towards those cultures, effectively demonstrating that they consider them inferior..

 

What about Islamic Ottoman Turks, why were they a lumbering empire with a massive population, and little intellectual contributions?

Actually, by your logic Turkey should have gone further than Germany who had a much smaller empire in comparison.

 

Northern Italy had no empire what so ever in modern times, and has produced a lot of intellectual contributions, so it seems the guns, germs, and steel argument of empire falls short.

 

If one is a believer in Allah, God, then they believe their culture is superior.
It's all based on one's perspective.

From my perspective western culture is superior. If we can progress, we can be even more superior.

 

Amish culture is stuck in the 19th century. To them, their culture is superior.

 

The Amish do make some good products though.

 

[video=youtube;lOfZLb33uCg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg[/video]