[Fis] THE ROOTS OF MODERN CIVILISATION

Sun Jan 8 01:36:48 CET 2023

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WHY SAVE THE WESTERN SYSTEM?

By

Howard Bloom

 The war in the Ukraine isa battle between the western system and the systems of autocrats like VladimirPutin and Xi Jinping.  It is a battlebetween democracy and dictatorship.

 This raises aquestion:  why fight to save the westernsystem?

 Every belief system thatappeals to our idealism claims that it will lift the poor and the oppressed.  But the Western System has lifted the poorand oppressed more than any other system in history.

 Judge for yourself:

 ·       The western system has lifted a billion people out ofpoverty in a mere thirty years.[ii]

·       The western system has more than doubled the human lifespan.  If you’d been born in 1850, your expectedlifespan would have been 37.5 years.  Ifyou’d been born in the West in 2000, your expected lifespan would have been78.5 years.  Chinese Emperors werewilling to spend almost all of their wealth to achieve an extra four years oflife.  But the western system has addedanother 40. No other system in the history of the world—not the Chinese,Egyptian, Muslim, Russian, or Roman—has ever pulled this off.

·       If you’d been the poorest paid worker in London in2012, a personal assistant, you would have earned what an entire tenement fullof the poorest paid workers in London were paid in 1850. 

·       If you gave a bunch of average western kids today a StanfordBinet IQ test from 1916, today’s kids would register as near geniuses.  They’d register an average IQ of roughly135.  That’s an IQ Jump of 35 points.

·       If you were born into the western system in 2000, yourheight would have been four inches taller than if you’d been born in 1850.

·       Since 1650, the western system has upped the level ofpeace by a factor of ten.  If you wereborn in an indigenous culture, one of those tribes that “lives in peace withits fellow man and in harmony with nature,” your odds of dying a violent death at the hands of a fellow human beingwould have been ten times what they are in the west today.  Yes, thanks to the western system there isten times more peace in the world today.

 If our great, greatgrandparents could give us an extra 40 years of life, we owe an extra 40 moreto our great, great grandchildren.  Ifour great, great grandparents could septuple the incomes of the poorest workersamong us, surely we owe another septupling to our great great grandkids.  If our great, great grandparents could up theaverage IQ by 35 points, surely we owe another 35 to our great great grandkids.  And if our great  great grandparents could increase the peacein the world by a factor of ten, surely we owe our great great grandkids tentimes more.  

 But to carry out thisobligation, we need to see and value what we’ve achieved.  And we need to tenaciously defend the systemthat has given us these gifts.   We needto realize that the western system is not the worst system in the  history of mankind, it is the best.  And we need to defend its values—freedom ofspeech, tolerance, and democracy. Topping all that, we need to defend the western system’s greatest hiddensecret—a perpetual balancing act between three elements—government, privateenterprise, and the protest industry.

 ***

 What are the westernsystem’s core values?  Democracy,pluralism, tolerance, and freedom of speech.

 The result?  The western system is the only system in thehistory of the world that has ever invented:

 ·       Human rights

·       The abolition of slavery

·       The concept of freedom

·       Individualism

·       The peace movement

·       The anti-imperialist movement

·       Diversity

·       Freedom of speech

·       Freedom of the press

·       The concept of equality.

·       The environmental movement

·       A concern about endangered species

·       A concept of animal rights

·       The idea of global warming

·       The desire to save the planet

 If the western systemgoes, all of these things go with it. Under the Russians, the Chinese, or the Muslims, all of these woulddisappear and be replaced by the requirement to say only what the authoritieswant you to say.  No more rights.  No more LGBTQ.  No more protests.  In Afghanistan, imprisonment in the house forwomen.  And the right to beat your wife.

 We must keep the westernsystem alive.  And we must keep thewestern system striving for a glittering future for all of humankind.
for more see my book The Genius of the Beast: a Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism______

[ii] https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.economist.com/leaders/2013/06/01/towards-the-end-of-poverty__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvLbSpj90A$ , https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ourworldindata.org/poverty?insight=global-extreme-poverty-declined-substantially-over-the-last-generation*key-insights-on-poverty__;Iw!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvLUZL8C-Q$ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Pedro C. Marijuán <pedroc.marijuan at gmail.com>
To: fis at listas.unizar.es
Sent: Sat, Jan 7, 2023 8:21 am
Subject: Re: [Fis] THE ROOTS OF MODERN CIVILISATION

 Dear Plamen & FISers, 
  Thanks a lot for the opening text. It is thoughtful essay that synthesizes so many threads of thought. The emphasis on the monastic system as the first vertebration of Europe, giving rise to what later on would be the Western civilization and the expansion to the globalized world of today, is totally shared. About the title, the term "roots" is quite meaningful to promote and articulate the discussion. In this initial response I will focus on two main aspects. 
  First, about "roots" themselves. I continue with this significant metaphor, applying it generationally. I mean, every generation approaches the civilization "tree" and makes some adjustment in its branches and roots. Branches would be more apparent than consequential (fashions, codes, tastes, etc., think on music e.g.). Roots are those fundamental underground elements that deeply affect the way of thinking and the way of life. So, cutting some of them, or letting them rotting, may represent a risky civilization experiment. As Plamen has implied in the Intro and the Conclusions, we are in the middle of one of these dangerous historical experiments. There is now a widespread criticism and rejection of the whole values and knowledge that have taken us up to this epoch. But or Pinker, Rosling and many others it is the most benevolent and prosperous time for living in our planet. Personally I do not quite share that optimism, but it looks closer to social realities, and more rational, than the 'cancel' radicalism seemingly in vogue. 
   And second, about an interrogation. What external or internal factors have pushed societies in these new 'negative' directions. Very briefly and echoing McLuhan, I would point to media, Internet, and social networks. The new generation (millenials or Z, or whatever they are called) have passed their adolescence texting and texting hanged on the screens of their mobiles. It has been a curious new way to access sociality, to build and develop to what could be called their own independent "sociotype". The result seemingly is increased anxiety and intolerance, and diminished rationality. In "The Coddling of the American Mind" : How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure"  Lukianoff and Haidt develop in depth the psycho 'roots' of this strange new culture. And I conclude, agreeing with the succinct analysis made below on the troubles in our system of knowledge, for this is a fundamental root that is getting cut or rotten or whatever --it is getting massified, bureaucratized, and more uncreative. OK, but what about the other major roots? If we also consider as fundamental roots the ecological (&biomedical), the political-managerial, and the moral-religious (the value system), what can we say? Thanking again to Plamen for the inspiring text, Best wishes to all --Pedro

  El 06/01/2023 a las 12:49, Dr. Plamen L. Simeonov escribió:

 Dear Colleagues, 
  I wish you a HAPPY; HEALTHY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR 2023 ! 
  It is my pleasure to announce, -- also on behalf of our generous and hard-working host Pedro C. Marijuan who has provided us with this forum of wonderful exchange for so many years (Hallelujah!), --  the opening of our New Year's discussion session under the topic THE ROOTS OF CIVILISATION. that will end on January 31st, 2023. 
  I am eager and curious to read your ideas. Please feel free to share whatever comes to your mind.

   Here is the abstract with the focus and some idea we can extract/expect at the end: 
  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

   THE ROOTS OF MODERN (WESTERN / EUROPEAN) CIVILISATION INTRO: We are living today in uncertain times with multiple overlapping human-made crises which an advanced civilization is supposed to anticipate and prevent -- ecology, epidemics, overpopulation, economy with disproportional energy and resources consume, cultural and generational polarization, even questioning science, moral values and an individual’s identity. Furthermore, ideologically led old ghost teachings of division, conflict and confrontation among social groups and utopic tech visions for remodeling and resetting the world with unpredictable consequences are contributing to the overall confusion and wrong choices, thus deepening the crises even more. Could we look back at the past for some lessons? THE MAGISTERY OF HISTORY: There have been many episodes of civilization crises along human history. Each one of them has left a "recipe" in our collective memory of how to overcome it. Maybe this time things have become too complex and multi-faceted, like society itself. Or maybe an evil intention is lurking behind? There are so many different aspects at multiple levels in social life all over the world that have been increasingly challenged by our tunnel vision on technology oriented towards more production/profit and less cleaning/reuse/benevolence, away from a stable equilibrium (“homeostasis”). They need to be reorganized coherently and in a commonly agreeable way, not in one imposed by self-proclaimed authorities who got used to changing long established definitions and rules of conduct following their own agenda. This takes time, of course, as it has always been. What about looking for lessons to learn from the past, or at least to obtain some orientation in order to make the right decisions in this difficult time? This appears to be more reasonable than starting to invent novel directive-guided solutions from scratch deploying not yet proven as safe technologies in a trial-and-error fashion. We have an intriguing proposal for you. Let us focus on a fascinating period in human history and find out how the Western world was rebuilt and reintegrated from the ruins of the Roman Empire.   https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=1708__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvLI3kS5YQ$  https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-paved-the-road-to-modernity__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvIbLlZrDQ$  THE MONASTIC SYSTEM - A GREAT IDEA. A handful of people may be credited with the design and realization of this truly civilization project. During its golden ages, Rome was defended by more than 200,000 legionaries, but after its fall in 466 AD they were replaced by other, more powerful spiritual warriors. They gradually covered the fragmented (Western) Europe and expanded Christianity through missionaries in the North by a coherent space of several thousand Catholic Benedictine monasteries that peacefully preserved and cultivated education, technology, economy, medicine, law, art and moral values that integrated the wisdom of the classical antiquity (Rom and Greece) and enlightened the local communities through the Dark Ages. Their success in ameliorating and guiding the human spirit paved the way for the urban "cloisters" of universities during the Renaissance Era (XII century ff.) where the seeds of science found their fruitful grounds to grow. Thus, several major crises, incl. alien invasions, the plague, internecine wars and famines were overcome thanks to this new resilient social scaffold. 
  In Eastern Europe, the Roman-Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, although shrunk through the waves of plague and foreign invasions, survived for almost 1000 years thanks to expanding Christianity and culture to its new neighbor and rival, but also ally at times in the North, the Bulgarian Empire. The latter developed the Cyrillic alphabet during the IX century AD, translated the holy books/prayers/songs in their language and began disseminating them to the other Slavic people in today’s territories of Serbia and Montenegro, Wallachia (Romania), Ukraine and Russia. When the Bulgarian 3 kingdoms and Constantinople surrendered in 1396 AD and 1453 AD to the Ottoman Empire, the conquered people on the Balkan peninsula continued to exist spiritually through a growing network of Christian Orthodox monasteries that kept the local communities together and finally led them to freedom through the national liberation movements in the XIX century. 
  Both Eastern and Western Europe endured those crises, calamities and invasions because they maintained firm, sound civilization roots based on the monastic system, the universities and schools as education centers, and later on industrial corporations. From today’s viewpoint the monastic system is analogous to a modern resilient, redundant, fault-tolerant and flexibly configurable computer network, particularly with respect to its data storage and processing resources, capable of self-diagnosis and self-healing, a critical infrastructure per se. If a monastery was destroyed or burned, the monks escaped with most of their valuable books and artefacts via safe routes to neighboring monasteries, where they could be preserved, replicated and distributed again.     https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvJvfB-k6Q$    https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/boyana-church__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvIt0upiSA$    THE SUCCESS OF THE WESTERN WORLD: Arguably, what we call cultural Renaissance followed by scientific and industrial revolutions were an evolutive product of medieval society and the era of great geographical discoveries in the New Worlds beyond Europe, North Africa and Asia. Quite probably, they were only possible thanks to the first missionary globalization and peaceful goods exchange along the silk trade route following the pattern of the Antique World trade across the territories surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Spain and Portugal brought to Europe not only spices and silk, but also fundamental technologies from Asia (gun powder, magnetic compass, paper, porcelain), and later on a regular maritime trade routes from China via Philippines and Mexico over the Atlantic that were active for more than 250 years before Holland, France and England became colonial powers dominating the sea trade, yet at the price of slavery and exploiting the native population. The further role of science and technology in the task of changing Western societies was awesome, perhaps with the infamous Cartesian breach between science and the humanities, which no doubt has delivered a biased conception of our rationality limits and led to awful ideological misunderstandings that are absent in oriental civilizations.    BACK TO THE PROBLEMS OF OUR TIME And here we are. In a world that again faces illnesses and adverse events from their anecdotic treatment to ask: “How is the state of our civilization and our roots today? What do we identify with today? Do we recognize the patterns that let us down before and now? Do we know what can reconcile and heal our multi-facetted society?” We modestly, as scientists recognizing the societal immune system, acknowledge the fact that we have the duty to contribute to recovering the system with coherent visions illuminating the "forking paths ahead" (as Borges put it). First of all, on our own turf -- the flagrant incoherence and misunderstandings around most fields where information and communication, meaning and knowledge, as well as collective intelligence need to be cleared up and nailed down. We need to clean up our own backyard on this planet and evolve to a new level, -- not necessarily a purely technocratic one, -- before we set off for new missions in space and meeting other civilizations out there. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://interestingliterature.com/2021/07/jorge-luis-borges-the-garden-of-forking-paths-summary-analysis/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvLPENbTgw$  https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/william-shatner-space-boldly-go-excerpt-1235395113/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvJYlbLueg$   
  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  With best wishes, 
  Plamen 
                                                                              ___ ___ ___ Dr. Plamen L. Simeonov Director Research Integral Biomathics InBioCe – Integral Biomathics Centre  phone1: +1 (213) 822-7245 phone2: +49 173 7816 337
  email: plamen at simeio.org 
  URLs: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.linkedin.com/in/plamenlsimeonov/__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvLff6gnUQ$  simeio.org  |  ibiomath.org  |  inbiosa.eu OurWorldInData.org/coronavirus 
  https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://groups.google.com/d/forum/covid-19-therapy__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvLQtWMVxA$  
  Orcid ID: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2672-4405__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QwKw4596oBjhPlDqKJz7us3x8fInOQWoKd_PzqXK7v6uiq50DDc4nMr72oXTQDNO0hE_Il-gJvJt5BJ-WA$  Scopus Author ID: 7006001629 ResearcherID: T-4786-2017 
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