On Western Civilisation ( the civilisation the whole World is joining) and China under the Creepy Communist Party.
Agree with much of what Sarah Paine says in her interview in @decodinggeopoliticspodcast, but for one thing; Christian values are not the foundation of our civilisation. Christianity, never mind Jesus nice words, is a totalitarian concept, like Judaism, Islam, Communism and Nazional Socialism (Nazional Communism). Of course, the religions are not usually as bad as the political movements, but they have pretty killing moments.
Each is totalitarian because each rest on the irrational idea that each has The Truth (the answer to all all humanities problems) and that the answer is psychological (spiritual), which is absurd.
It is because of that belief each has that they hate each other and any other religion; to the Christian believer to the Jewish believer, to the Moslem believer, to the Communist believer to the Naxi believer, all other believers are wrong and/or evil.
The Western Europeans civilized themselves and European Jews with the Greeks, and did the same to the whole World. The job not finished, but almost there. The Chinese dumping the CCP will be a big leap forward.
Chrisianity did not bring to the West, to the World, the Renaissance or the Enlightenment, those happened when Europeans came across Greek Reason and Freedom, the rest is history.
Christianity did not bring to the Romans and the rest freedom, innovation of prosperity, it brough the Dark Ages and the Inquisition
European Christians recivilized themselves to the Greek values of freedom of thought (instead of submission to holy books, dogma, God, etc.)
All of Western civilisation is the continuation of the Greek Reason that our ancestors of the Renaissance had the good sense to recognize.
We still have not caugjt up fully to the Greeks, otherwise religion woulf be far less important by now, and we would have real democracy in which people directly, not elected officials, would make the key decisions.
What we have are elected aristocracies.
Elected aristocracy is a huge step forward from theocravy, divine kings, führers, popes, imans, ayatollahs, general secretaries of the communist party or assorted dictators, but it is not democracy.
The only modern country that could claim to be a real democracy is Switzerland.
Inspired by the Swiss, the Chinese of Taiwan and the Spanish of Uruguy have taken steps in the same direction.
In the US, California and a number of other US states took steps in the same direction, unfortunstely nothing was done at the federal level, and the US, like all other so-called democracies, is stuck with and by elected aristocracy, and demential electoral laws that hand power over politicians to the big donors.
Another thing we would not have if we had caught up to the Greeks fully, would be political parties who, in fact, are similar to religions, each with its preconceived idea of how to deal with any issue; instead of just Reason and Facts.
What humanity needs is Reason and Facts, not ideologies; how should we orgamize ourselves democratically, how to apply Reason to disease, to death, to hygiene, to alleviate suffering, how to grow food, how to make life safer and more comfortable, etc., no by irrational preconceived “solutions”.
It is the Greeks who, by reasoning and by pushing the gods aside, by having gods with the good sense of not sending down prophets or holy books that the ancient Greeks towered above all other peoples on Earth and reset humanity.
While China has joined Western civilisation and its science and technology, still is stuck in “religious” political thought, this time in the form of official Atheism who can not tolerate other beliefs.
To make matters worse, the Chinese of the mainlanf are being indoctrinated with the idea that they are superior, some even talk of racial superiority. The fact is China fell way behind the West all by themselves.
Of course, the Chinese people have the capacity of being number one, but it will be because they joined Greek thought.
The Chinese of Taiwan demonstrate they are capable of producing great prosperity and great democracy. Those in the mainland are stuck in totalitatian Nazional Socialism, one of the craziest ideas the West ever produced.
If China does not ditch the Creepy Communist Party, there will be a war that China will lose for obvious readons. It will deliver to itself the humiliation it needs to become a great free country.
In the meantime we should all do all we can to bring real Greco-Swiss democracy to our mostly corrupt elected aristocracies.
