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I know I'm fixating on the title you used...but I think that holds a real
underlying feeling you have on the issue. Do they not have the brain capacity because they don't think like you? You can't really judge it unless you know the ins and outs of the culture intimately. The Mayans didn't behave like us, yet they seemed to do well with pretty complicated engineering projects. The American Indian seemed to keep himself fed and the like without our way of life, etc. People may have different ways of doing things, but the fact that they don't jump to using our way of life doesn't speak to brain capacity. At best, that's a pretty ethnocentric point of view.
posted by
terpgirl30
on August 13, 2006 at 2:29 AM
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Infatuation with democracy
I totally agree with you. But apart from that, saying that a people is not ready for democracy already implies a value judgement, because it's implied that the highest form of government is democracy. But that's simply not true. It is the best form of government for 'evolved ' people or societies, but they are definitely the minority. So why try and muscle democracy on societies that are just not ready for it or plain don't want it. What an arrogance.
posted by
GeorgGrey
on August 13, 2006 at 1:57 AM
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