I'm not an economic determinist. (This is partly because usually
"economics" is hard to separate from "social relations" and
"politics." What is "economics" anyway? markets?) I don't think that
Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are against violence _in practice_
(and it's practice that matters in the end, not theory). For example,
the Confucian emperors of China (or rather, their troops) put down a
lot of peasant revolts using force and violence. (The emperors also
tried to dominate neighboring countries such as Vietnam, again using
force and violence. Christianity also claims to be anti-violence
("turn the other cheek") but in practice, it isn't.Cultural traits such as disdain for firearms tend to go away when an enemy using firearms appears (unless there's a weapon at hand that's better than guns, of course). I'd bet that you can find examples in W. Europe of aristocrats disdaining firearms, and also that this cultural trait went away over time. Culture is quite important, especially for understanding the differences between countries and ethnic groups. Unfortunately for cultural determinism, over time cultures tend to change in response to economic, political, and social-relations changes. On 4/6/06, C Ruiz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > In a message dated 4/6/2006 6:48:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > My impression is that the Chinese didn't use gunpower to make guns > because they really didn't need to. The empire ruled the roost with > predominant power and there was little need to develop new weapons > > This is a very instrumentalist view in that it ignores religious and > cultural factors. (Unless you are an strict economic determinist). For > instance, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are profoundly anti-violence, > pro-peace religions with an emphasis on actual fraternal practice as opposed > to the preachy self-righteousness of Christianism. > On the other hand,.in ancient China and Japan, the use of firearms was > considered for cowards and consequently a matter of dishonor and lack of > self respect and totally inappropriate to true warriors. > Cristobal Senior Ruiz -- Jim Devine / "There can be no real individual freedom in the presence of economic insecurity." -- Chester Bowles
