KJ Khoo,
Where are you from? First I should thank myself - thanks Ricardo -
for encouraging diversity in this list and bringing some fresh air into
the inveterate exchanges between Itchy and Scratchy. Some
ideas peculiar to modern culture encourage that diversity, such as
the ethic of authenticity. Though this ethic has been expressed in
many forms, I am thinking of Descartes and the rationalist tradition
that each individual should him/herself discover the truth rather
than uncritically accepting what has been handed down. I do not
simply mean the "negative" liberty to think without interference by
others, because this ethic has to be recognized by others, and can
only be cultivated from within in a dialogical relation with others. I
mean you have to be committed to the idea that others have the
right to self-fulfilment. Women have the right to self-fulfilment in
marriege. And so do children as children, which means that we
have a responsability to them, so this ethic goes beyond/against
narcissism.
> the West has no monopoly on those ideas, and really, "cultivation" is
> a gross distortion of what the West has done, at least from the
> perspective of those of us outside the West.
>
> Sen's Development as Freedom points out several instances of such
> ideas which long pre-date the contemporary West's promotion
> (cultivation implies some really serious effort of application) of
> them -- a promotion, need one add, fulfilled more in the breach than
> in the observance. Unless, of course, one chooses to ignore the
> continued Anglo-American actions in Iraq, not to mention the
> consistent support for Israeli policy and bloody-mindedness.
>
> Incidentally, curious isn't it, that any talk of Asian values should
> meet with such outrage, and the inevitable scare quotes, whereas "the
> West" can be bandied about with apparent self-evident status, minus
> the scare quotes and the capitalised "W".
>
> KJ Khoo
>
