* From: Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:jdevine03
Let's turn the question around. Charles, are you saying that Western Europeans have a greater tendency to be violent than other ethnic groups? is this based in genetics? in the Western European interpretation of Christianity? or what? ^^^^^ CB: Cultural and historically caused. Genes don't operate at this level. The concept of race is a Western , false biological category, wholly developed by these very "Westerners" as a big lie in conquering non-Westerneres.In the epoch of capitalism, the last 500 years, Westerners, as they call themselves, have had the highest tendency to use violence in their dealings with non-Westerners, especially those non-Westerners they colonialized and enslaved. This is relative. Relative especially to the peoples they conquered or "won", they had a higher use of violence. As far as the historical roots, actually, I think this aspect of capitalism, colonialism and slavery, is a throwback, a "revival" of those aspects of Greece and Rome, also, the self-declared historical origin of the "West" or "Western Civilization". It is not I who invented the concepts of "The West" or "Western Civilization". That is a self-determining decision by the giants of Western Civilization. The Middles Ages in Europe may have been "dark" , but they had thrown off slavery and colonialism. That was a step forward. Then capitalism comes along and takes one step forward with free labor, and two steps backward with slavery and colonialism. So, I'm thinking the slavery and colonial aspect where the capitalist violence was concentrated ( don't forget wage-labor is disciplined with the least direct violence as compared with serfs and slaves)was not rooted in Christian ideology and culture, but more in the conscious links to the classical Western civilizations. Capitalism has more of a Pagan than Christian ideology. Anyway , these are all historical and cultural causes.
