undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdigitalsushi3y ago0 comments

There must be some western culture that has been successful because it is what humans naturally gravitate towards.

0 comments

Funny how one might think that what is prevalent worldwide in this era looks like a natural trend.

To a goldfish in an aquarium, it is also very natural that food appears from above, as per magic.

The issue is, you can go back to any form of governance and social hierarchy throughout history and find groups of people defending it as what humans "naturally want." People have done this with feudalism and whatever came before.

JackFr3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_history

baisq3y ago

This is a very narrow view of the issue. There have been lots of different successful cultures throughout history and they were different in significant ways. Western culture is the one that you are currently living through. The rest of cultures of the past probably also thought they were the best and would last forever.

digitalsushiOP3y ago

It took me 7 hours to realize that my parent reply is lexically ambiguous and poorly written. I own it, I am full of covid and operating as well as everyone told me:

My intention was to indicate at least a fraction:

There must be /some/ western culture that has been successful because it [that portion] is what humans naturally gravitate towards.

My accident was to imply that western culture has been wholly successful:

There must be some-western-culture that has been successful because it [all of it] is what humans naturally gravitate towards.

Sorry to any readers in the future, I deserve the replies I got today in this context.

azth3y ago

Logical fallacy, just because humans naturally gravitate towards something does not make it right. Humans gravitate toward feeling good (drugs), and we see how that turns out for example.

JKCalhoun3y ago

We seem in fact to gravitate to tribalism if my (admittedly shallow) grasp of history is worth anything.

s1artibartfast3y ago

Muslim culture is probably the most successful culture if you are looking at growth over the last 1000 years or so.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse