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Re: "Fittest Culture" an Anachronism
Ruby Rohrlich (rohrlich@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU)
Thu, 14 Sep 1995 20:53:09 -0400
Having accepted the guilt, the next obvious step is what? striving to
repair the injuries, and that's much harder than accepting the guilt.
Ruby Rohrlich
On Wed, 13 Sep 1995, Bjorn Conrad wrote:
> Bob Graber wrote:
>
> >The idea of a "fittest culture" is scientifically detrimental and
> >socially dangerous- ...
> -----------------snip----------------------
>
> Yes, clearly certain Anthropological and scientific inquirery must be
> squelched, and even disallowed, in the interest of socio-political harmony.
> Certain conclusions must simply not be permitted regardless of their
> possible scientific legitimacy. Notions of a "fittest culture," a "fittest
> race," or a "fittest ethno-cultural group" are such examples. Additionally,
> this idea that there might be a direct cause and effect relationship between
> a particular sociocultural strategy for success, living standard and or per
> capita income, should also not be tolerated.
>
> >What we can--and probably should--say instead is that human
> >societies show a ten-thousand-year trend to grow larger, and that larger
> >societies have been expanding at the expense of small ones.
> -------------- snip ----------------------
>
> That said, we should acknowledge, once and for all, that one person's, or
> one group's success comes directly at the expense of another. For every
> dollar earned, or every grain of rice produced, consumed, or horded above
> and beyond average international levels, we are depriving and victimizing
> countless others all over the world who have less. We have to accept, each
> and everyone of us, that we are, in self-serving fashion, partaking in the
> spoils that our culturally imperialistic ways that have essentially raped
> and are still raping countless less inherently evil peoples on every
> continent. We are thereby continuing to engage in a virtual holocaust of
> ethno-cultural cleansing the likes of which the world has never seen. Any
> degree of collective guilt that we might manage to heap upon ourselves is
> doubtlessly not enough.
>
> Bjorn Conrad
>
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