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Knut Hamsun… That sounds very norwegi- …of course
As long as the core traits of Western civilization that allow for this to happen (generation after generation, since the days of the Vikings and Rome, passing through the Dutch East India Company and Leopold’s Congo, all the way to the Pax Americana and the decline of the Burger empire) remain unaddressed, this will certainly happen again. 🤷
Also, Obomber (Odroner?) and Kissinger were given Nobel Peace Prizes, not even passing through a third party, so it’s not like the prize itself means anything, it’s just Western PR…
If you left out the Vikings and Rome I would have agreed - East India Company marks the beginning of capitalism, a system that has persisted until today and drives corruption. But to blame this on culture that supposedly persist for thousands of years sounds wrong. What exactly are these core traits?
“Might makes right” is one, “there is no truth nor any objective right or wrong” is another one, and another one is “you can claim to believe in A and do B because beliefs and actions are disconnected”. It’s what I’ve seen both IRL as well as here, and it seems to be at the core of the ethnocultural group we call Western Europeans, with small groups that believe and operate in diametrically opposed ways which appear here and there and end up getting persecuted.
Many people I talk to IRL simply can’t be arsed to think about what they believe in and what they should believe in (they’re too busy having fun), and whilst most people simply don’t have the time, energy or capacity to be successful in such philosophical tasks, most of the world has had some sort of religious bases to enough degree that even those who are a bit more agnostic nowadays have some working moral frameworks. By the time Nietzsche was writing, God was already dead in Europe, and even then they just got a distorted and watered down, Roman version of Jesus’ anti-imperialistic, prosocial, self sacrificial, monotheistic message, and that was never replaced with anything. People simply default to not believing nor standing for anything in earnest, and in a vacuum of moral stances and values and an excess propaganda (plus perceived material danger), and psyops, they can be nudged into doing horrible things.
This is why Carney’s speech is so shocking even though all he did was allude to (without completely saying) what actually happened: “we were fully aligned and cooperated with the Burger empire but now the deal isn’t good so we’re choosing an alternative route”. Even a hint of truth from a Western head of state is unheard of! They’ve always played by might makes right and I say I believe A but do B, they haven’t changed nor will they any time soon but circumstances have forced their hands, and these are DEMOCRATIC nations too.
PS: Capitalism is an economic construct born from a lack of morals. How am I entitled to another man’s sweat? I do not sow but I gladly reap? “Thou shalt not steal” but this is robbery in broad daylight? Told you guys this is systemic, and it’s at the core of everything we collectively suffer from but still often disagree upon here. 😭
I don’t see how those are uniquely European traits though
Failure to uphold virtue is a worldwide, human trait. Failure to recognise it, to even admit there’s such a thing (because there’s no thing as objective right and wrong…) is a very Western problem. But maybe I’m wrong.
