We discussed global economics in a group at my local church
We discussed the need to incorporate ethical judment in the study of politics. I know its dangerous to mix science and ideology or even worse try to pass ideology for science. I come from a communist country and know first hand how bad is that. Still politics, philosophy and economics have profound effects on people's lives and we cannot pretend to study them without any bias. If we judge by effectiveness in achieving goals and popular support certainly Hitler would come up high in our evaluations scale at least in the first years of his leadership but was he good? We all know the answer and don't need political science to tell us what it is.
My son remarked that society hasn't really changed much from ancient times, but I said that is probably because we only choose to remember particular events from the ancient society, In reality I believe it was much more primitive and horrible but we remember the good things that only came to matter in our age because people made them happen.
Now we have a crooked world. A world in crisis. A world that have exhausted most of the intellectual and philosophical capital of the past. Western Enlightened that came about when Christian West European medieval thinkers rediscovered ancient Greek philosophy preserved by Muslim scholars who had managed to combine Judaism and Christianity (born on the border of Greek and Roman fascination with Judaism) into Islam a spiritual-political system that went on to create one of the most far reaching and culturally diverse empires only to collapse under the weight of corruption and resistance to change to it's present pitiful condition. The Catholic empire went the same way so did Communist Russia. In the East Buddhism found acceptance in Taoist, Confucianist China and Shinto Japan that wen on to adopt Western ways after being humiliated by the Commodore Perry. China went on to adopt Russian Leninism and make it even more horrible. Then Deng figured out the it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice and here we have contemporary Communist China as the main creditor of capitalist USA.
And that's it. Since Kant, Marx and Keynes nothing radical new under the sun of human thought. After “We the people hold these truths to be self evident … “ we have only the pale echo of the UN Charter and Declaration of human rights and that's it. Where on from now? The great philosophers a thing of the past, the great spiritual prophets too. Yet humanity faces problems immensely more complicated than thousands of years ago.
I believe the answer is in respect for every human being. Only collective wisdom can help us overcome. It is there we have to reach for it. And make sure the voices of millions disenfranchised are heard too because they may come up with important part of the solution.
Wow, great post I have to say, excellent "rant." (I suppose if you want to call it that) But I couldn't agree more with you on things.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Could you please leave a space between each paragraph so your blog is easier to read? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHey Wizard!
ReplyDeleteAs I read your article, one word came to mind: valour.
You are not afraid of saying things as they are and I admire that in people like you: thank you *bowing*!
"Muslim scholars who had managed to combine Judaism and Christianity (born on the border of Greek and Roman fascination with Judaism) into Islam a spiritual-political system" - excellently put! This should make many think.
"(...) Islam a spiritual-political system that went on to create one of the most far reaching and culturally diverse empires only to collapse under the weight of corruption and resistance to change to it's present pitiful condition." - Hear, Hear!! So true and so sad at the same time, isn't it? Islam could be a great "nation" (because they are persistent, I must give them that), but it isn't. Islam, through its resistance to change, chose to yield to ignorance and defeat (for they will always be defeated if they keep it up).
"China went on to adopt Russian Leninism and make it even more horrible." - so true.
"Then Deng figured out the it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice and here we have contemporary Communist China as the main creditor of capitalist USA." - LOL again, true...however it still remains horrible. But is it just me, or have they began to quiver a bit? There is something up for the USA have started to criticise them; Europe is criticising them as well; and people are no longer afraid of China (ex: South Africa refused Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference, and hence the guests started dropping the invitations one by one - since they said that why should China influence a peace conference? - result: the conference was cancelled, I believe).
I am still hoping China will cease being communist - call me a dreamer; but I keep hoping...
Fantastic article!
I must add one more thing: I think we don't have thinkers like those in the past, because we have all grown accustomed to study, read, comment on, and write about Socrates, Kant, Karl Popper, Sartre etc and forgot that it is time write and think new lines of thought. We need to be more generous with the intellectuals we have now...
Cheers
I agree ethics are very important and I am glad your church is talking about them. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAnd I do agree we have made progress ...
Got here through Slog-A-Blog
~ Diane Clancy
www.DianeClancy.com/blog
www.DianeClancy.etsy.com
Democracies all over the world are failing t serve the intended purposes because of inherent defects -
ReplyDelete1. No consideration for quality of voters while the majority is always foolish.
2. Many democracies are not even based on majority support.
3. Corruption has overtaken all other considerations.
Unless these aberrations are corrected, humanity will go on getting degraded.
There has been many revolutionary intellectual breakthroughs in our century, but the wisdom is concentrated with the few researches and scientists.
ReplyDeleteThe advances made over the last century has been at such a pace and the resulting knowledge is so specialised, that most of us can't possibly keep up with it.
The lack of education, and political manipulation of truth leads further to faulty understanding of what needs to be done.
Ethics are derives from learning how humanity functions as a society and learning about the way in which we interact with the environment. It is also important to know how much power we actually have and how we can use them responsibly.
Excellent job Alex. Have a nice day.
ReplyDeleteNice post. And the $65,000 question is: Where have all the ethics gone?
ReplyDelete