dlowan wrote:blatham wrote:finn said
Quote:The fact is that before the war began, it was the Left who were telling us that democracy can't work in Iraq,
I'm sure you'll be forthcoming with citations.
Sadly, I think it often IS (though not exclusively) a "left thing".
I have discussed this a couple of times here - (but more re "Asian values"). The left do it on a "you cannot impose our values on other cultures" thing - which has some merit - but ignores (in relation to "Asian values", too) the fact that many peoples DO aspire to democracy - as it seems the Iraqis do. Many Asian activists, living under paternalistic or repressive regimes, say the Asian values thing is a swindle sold by their governments, and swallowed by well meaning westerners.
The right, I observe, seem to do it more in a "they're children" sort of way.
deb
I think there are two separate notions here. The one you speak of - the hesitancy to impose one set of cultural values onto a people with a different history - is a notion now probably shared by most everyone in the west (lots of history to look back on with some shame). But how firmly we might hold to that principle is where the interesting complexities and questions sit. Bloom made a wonderful point in his book regarding students who came into his classes with this notion as an absolute. His attempts to encourage some reflection (eg ought the Brits, during their time in India, allowed local customs to prevail, such as stoning to death wives with disappointing dowries) were often met with, "Well, the Brits shouldn't have been there in the first place!". But overall, I think most of us are now less than complacent with the idea that our values are somehow inherently superior to those of other cultures, and that the tendency to believe this is a predictable component.
The second notion or claim seems really very different... Asians are not used to democracy and therefore it will just upset them and the system so they are better off under a regime which forwards a lower regard for individual freedoms and a higher valuation for responsibility to the greater whole. But that's hardly a political axiom from the left. It is, I think, more properly seen as a PR tool used by very repressive regimes to counter claims of anti-democracy and international complaints regarding human rights (usually voiced during trade negotiations). One could also argue pretty compellingly here that the diminshed rights within such repressive regimes has been far less of a philosophical problem for the business community who require stability more than anything like a morally justifiable local political scene when operating in the third world.
My post was a protest against finn's claim, which I don't think he'll find much in the way of citations for.
