🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <dorfmanEt9syw.GMG@netcom.com>, dorfman@netcom.com (Merlin
Dorfman) wrote:

>     Oh, no, Mr. Ronzone (sincker), the Arabs invented mathematics,

Not quite--Euclid was a Greek. The Hindus apparently invented the decimal
system, and the Muslims (not exclusively arabs) invented algebra.

>law, and writing, 

I suspect you are confusing "Arab" with "inhabitant of the Middle East."
Sumeria et. al. are not in Arabia.


>the Chinese invented chemistry, the Hebrews invented
>monotheism, 

Possibly the Egyptians--specifically Ikhnaten

>the Japanese had a thriving artistic, literary, and 
>musical culture at a time when Europe was in the Dark Ages...

How early are you thinking of? I would have said that Europe had a
thriving artistic, literary and musical culture too. Consider the Sutton
Hoo Treasure for early, which I will put up against any early Japanese
metalwork. The sagas can certainly stand comparison with Genji Monogatari,
if that is what you were thinking of for literary.

>what happened 500 or 600 years 
>ago that suddenly caused Europe, which had been the slow learners
>of the Eastern Hemisphere for over 1000 years, to leap forward in
>exploration, science, finance, politics, and many other fields so
>that within a couple of centuries they dominated the world?  

A very interesting question.

>And
>what caused them to be so scornful of their victims that they not
>only exterminated them left and right (an attribute not limited,
>of course, to Europeans) but denied that the pre-existing cultures
>had ever existed?

I think both halves of this are an exaggeration. There were a few cases of
extermination, such as Hispaniola, and a few others of very large
population reduction, such as South and Central America. But I think in
most other cases you will find that populations in areas conquered by
Europeans were not greatly affected by the conquest. 

So far as denying the existence of previous cultures, 18th century
Europeans (which I happen to have been reading recently) thought very
highly of China, and tended to romanticize the Amerinds. It is true that
they didn't think very much of the culture of subsaharan Africa--but then,
with the exception of Ethiopia, there isn't much left of that culture save
archaeological evidence, and that mostly pretty recent.

>     And during this very century Hitler (a DWEM) exterminated more
>than 6 million people in death camps, and wars between Germany and
>Russia exterminated probably 20 million.  Makes the ANC look 
>positively charitable.  And by the way, which tribal ideology was
>the ANC advocating during this time?  Oh, yes, Communism was
>invented by the Zulus, wasn't it?

No, but the Zulus did kill very large number of people somewhat earlier.
They didn't invent communism, but they did do a pretty impressive job on
military organization.

During this century, the Chinese government killed considerably more of
its citizens than Hitler, and internal conflicts in China early in the
century probably killed more people than WWI.  The ANC killed relatively
few people by historical standards, but the Hutu-Tutsi conflict is by now
in at least the high hundreds of thousands, as is the Nigerian Civil War,
as is the internal killing in Uganda. 

Or in other words, mass killing is not entirely, or even primarily, a
western European phenomenon.

I wish someone would define DWEM. Dead White European Males?
-- 
David Friedman
DDFr@Best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
"No man is secure in his life, liberty or property 
while the legislature is in session"