The West is still here
Reader comment on: The Imperial Appetite

Submitted by Shalom Freedman, Feb 8, 2008 02:11

Darwin's seeing the predominant ruling form for mankind throughout history as 'empire' no doubt takes a page out of the book of one of the most remarkable and original historians working today- Niall Ferguson.

To the substance- the European rise has been connected by among others Whitehead with the Judeo-Christian conception of the linearity of history, and the uniqueness of historical enfolding as one- time story. Undelying this is a conception of the Divine order which means a lawful order of the natural world which can be rationally understood.

Clearly too the rise of Europe is connected with the rise of the scientific method, and the technological developments accompanying this. We are in the midst still of the period of accelerating change which the combination of discovery and invention ( including as Whitehead also saw ' the invention of invention' ) is bringing to us, and is transforming not only the material conditions of the world but the very 'essence' of human nature. In this sense the greatest challenges mankind faces are outside any clash of civilizations, or any predominance of one civilization over another.

Finally Europe and the United States together ( The Western world , if there is still such a thing) still overwhelmingly predominate in areas of science, technology , military power and even GDP. In this I think it is a bit premature and mistaken to think that the rise of China and to a degree India, mark out the retreat of the Western world.

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Other reader comments on this article

Title	By	Date
AMERICA'S COVERT IMPERIALISM [369 words]	Patrick D.Hazard	Feb 8, 2008 12:03
↔ Re: America's cover imperialism [510 words]	Frankly Speaking	Feb 9, 2008 22:19
↔ The imperial appetite survives [146 words]	Siddhartha S.Bhadrakumar	Feb 10, 2008 23:40
↔ "Thoughtful Europeans"? [27 words]	Glenn Smith	Feb 12, 2008 18:15
↔ SPEAKING FRANKLY ABOUT AMERICAN IMPERIALISM [229 words]	Patrick D.Hazard	Feb 13, 2008 10:26
↔ Don't be so quick... [79 words]	BklynGal305	Feb 14, 2008 17:38
↔ RESPONSE TO MR:GLENN SMITH [201 words]	Patrick D.Hazard	Feb 21, 2008 03:00
↔ China, a victim of imperialism? [21 words]	ricardo maxwell	Feb 21, 2008 08:51
↔ More substance would be nice [513 words]	Michael Rodriguez	Mar 4, 2008 14:05
↔ RE: Speaking Frankly about American Imperialism [178 words]	Paul McCord	Mar 10, 2008 10:30
↔ HUH? [26 words]	gxb	Mar 10, 2008 10:38
↔ To Mr. Hazard [183 words]	Gene Guffey	Mar 15, 2008 10:58
Same author? [72 words]	SD Goh	Feb 8, 2008 10:10
↔ No not really. [210 words]	D	Feb 8, 2008 15:03
This book is an attempt to frame a sentiimental persepctive that the history does not actually support [478 words]	D	Feb 8, 2008 09:24
↔ The elusive truth. [35 words]	Billy Smith	Feb 12, 2008 11:29
Don't ignore technology and science [66 words]	John McCarthy	Feb 8, 2008 04:29
⇒ The West is still here [249 words]	Shalom Freedman	Feb 8, 2008 02:11
↔ Social and spiritual dismantling [240 words]	Karen Ways	Feb 8, 2008 21:58
↔ War begat war [378 words]	C	Feb 9, 2008 21:19
↔ Winner or Loosers [300 words]	Patrizia von Lutzow-Vorbeck	Mar 16, 2008 16:46

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