"Niall IN Denial"?
Last night I watched the conclusion of "Civilization: The West and the Rest", narrated by Niall Ferguson. It is a very impressive, attractive (the "shots" of Niall), and expensive defense of the West and White Supremacy.
Among the supremacist nations, Ferguson contrasts Spain with England; favoring the English, of course. Catholicism versus Protentantism; favoring Protestantism, of course. It takes him more than a full hour of the four-hour "special" to even mention slavery, or any of its many impacts on the world. He did mention the assertion of Ghandi's that the term "Western Civilization" was an oxymoron. (As the Morons in the Cheney/Bush period very recently proved.) Curiously, of all the factors he mentioned that could have caused the perceived "decline" of the West, he did not mention "Generations". Both "W" and Clinton were of the same generation (I think, born in the same year). If you check out William Strauss and Neil Howe's series of books (ISBN 0-688-1192-3),(1991), you might better understand why the West is now "in the crapper". Do we really want to return to that generation?
Niall travelled the globe to many beautiful sites contrasting the roles of the French, British, Spanish, and other Europeans to show their superiority to the "Moslems". He wove through his narrative a theme of six "Killer-Apps"; Competition, Science and Technology, Property, Medicine, Consumerism, and the Protestant Work Ethic.
Then he turned to Misery (Missouri), citing Max Weber's trip to the Worlds Fair in St. Louis in 1904.
Public Administrators, among other professions tout Weber and his support of Capitalism and the Protestant Work Ethic. Niall blames the crash of 2008 on a people who practiced the Work Ethic, but declined the part that required "saving". He spent a lot of time discussing the present day virtues of Springfield, Missouri (a few miles down U.S. 65 from my home town). He got a lot of the Missouri traits right; the confluences of the French, Spanish, English, and Germans; the excessive religiosity (a church on every corner); the early embrace of railroads, but he failed to mention the very oppressive form of white supremacy, (derived from a past of chattel slavery), practiced there.
But, all is not lost, Niall shows that the Chinese will save the world for the West. They now print the most Bibles in the world, and he posits that Christianity (up-dated version to please the Communists) will lead new business development in China.
His stop on the continent of Africa was very brief and dwelled almost exclusively on French West Africa. He heavily implies that Europeans were correct in their sorry history of dealings on the continent.
The Foundations that funded this debacle should be ashamed.
Stay Vigilant!Copyright © 2012: Williams LLC
All Rights Reserved: Williams LLC
No comments:
Post a Comment