Are the House Democrats Insane? | Clarissa's Blog
This, from the blog entry, is completely true:
I can't comment on USA immigration policies, but the lack of ability on the part of most Westerners to engage in rational discourse, without mincing their words, is very disturbing to behold. For example, from a Facebook discussion on "primary processes" recently, I explained that some cultures are more imbued with them than others. I added that this has both positive and negative consequences for cultures who are less so imbued and more imbued.
The positive consequences (obviously, in per my view) are that people who approach the world in such a way are more able to intuitively accommodate others, if they so wish. A negative aspect would be that the magical thinking of primary processes would lead more often to accusations of witchcraft -- which is also what we see more often in most parts of Africa. So, there are positive and negative aspects to this. I also mentioned that Western culture tends to be devitalized relatively speaking, through not involving this full-bodied approach to life. At the same time, it was good not to be accused of being a witch.
This is of course a touchy topic, full of opinion and representations of subjective experience. Nonetheless, some people cannot touch upon it easily, if at all. They bring up all sorts of qualifying statements like, "We can't make comparisons between cultures..." even though I have explicitly been making them. They also freely affirm that Western culture is lacking in something (which is falsely attributed to a moral lack in the form of Western materialism). African culture is only to be envied and aspired to, not criticized.
Despite the fact that I have already criticized it, by saying I find refuge in Western culture which does not easily attribute witchcraft to people, the issue is side-stepped with the statement that Europe also experienced a witchcraft craze in the medieval era. That was something I already knew, but it is illogical to make the comparison meaningless, by seeming to associate present day Africa with a more ancient European time.
It seems to me that no matter how hard I work to establish that there may be pluses and minuses within different cultures, most Westerners reflexively work to establish a moral hierarchy, where they (as Westerners) appear on top, due to their ability to split hairs more finely.
This, from the blog entry, is completely true:
"if we can no longer be the benevolent masters of the Third World, we can at least be the privileged source of evil, patronizingly depriving others of responsibility for their fate (when a Third World country engages in terrible crimes, it is never fully its own responsibility, but always an after effect of colonization)."
I can't comment on USA immigration policies, but the lack of ability on the part of most Westerners to engage in rational discourse, without mincing their words, is very disturbing to behold. For example, from a Facebook discussion on "primary processes" recently, I explained that some cultures are more imbued with them than others. I added that this has both positive and negative consequences for cultures who are less so imbued and more imbued.
The positive consequences (obviously, in per my view) are that people who approach the world in such a way are more able to intuitively accommodate others, if they so wish. A negative aspect would be that the magical thinking of primary processes would lead more often to accusations of witchcraft -- which is also what we see more often in most parts of Africa. So, there are positive and negative aspects to this. I also mentioned that Western culture tends to be devitalized relatively speaking, through not involving this full-bodied approach to life. At the same time, it was good not to be accused of being a witch.
This is of course a touchy topic, full of opinion and representations of subjective experience. Nonetheless, some people cannot touch upon it easily, if at all. They bring up all sorts of qualifying statements like, "We can't make comparisons between cultures..." even though I have explicitly been making them. They also freely affirm that Western culture is lacking in something (which is falsely attributed to a moral lack in the form of Western materialism). African culture is only to be envied and aspired to, not criticized.
Despite the fact that I have already criticized it, by saying I find refuge in Western culture which does not easily attribute witchcraft to people, the issue is side-stepped with the statement that Europe also experienced a witchcraft craze in the medieval era. That was something I already knew, but it is illogical to make the comparison meaningless, by seeming to associate present day Africa with a more ancient European time.
It seems to me that no matter how hard I work to establish that there may be pluses and minuses within different cultures, most Westerners reflexively work to establish a moral hierarchy, where they (as Westerners) appear on top, due to their ability to split hairs more finely.
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