Get your own Free Home Pageby Eldon New
About 2,500 years ago, two Cultures on the planet, acording to written history, began to question their own values. The Old Testament is dominated by complaints about the values of contemporary society. The complaints were allowed only if they were perceived to have come from "divine revelation".
Julian Jaynes says some interesting things about this in his book "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind".
Meanwhile, in the Greek culture, then argument method of dialogue was developed. ( See the "Dialogues of Plato".)
Evenually this method developed into logic and science.
In China, ethics were being developed. And in India, a type of logical argument was being recorded. The only cultures who allowed this questioning to influence politics and government were the Greek and the Hebrew. In the Greek empire, the school of Plato and Aristotle became connected with a political movement, and a philosopher was allowed to rule a province. The memes of democracy and freedom of speech were incubated there.
After the development of the fireplace and glazed windows, the influence of Galileo resulted in Newton and philosophers on the continent developing the experimental methiod and, equally important, the field of study called "natural philosophy".
The Hebrew culture as the first to develop an idea of universal literacy, and a value was placed on education that eventually led to the formation of the universities.
The resulting culture has elements that allow learning to take place on an institutional level. Separation of powers, democracy, the press, freedom of speech, all contribute to a system which is best decribed by a cybernetic model. In fact, the public school system, the telegraph, copyright law, and related developments resulted from this.
One way to measure the cybernetic feedback effect on society and institutions is to study the industrial revolution. Another way is to calculate the amount of new scientific information generated yearly.
The new culture resulting from the influences of the Enlightenment merger of these ancient memes rapidly colonized most of the planet.
Three countries that were not colonized were Japan, Tibet, and Afghanistan.
After World War II, the culture of Japan was integrated into Western culture. Tibet is currently being absorbed by China.
The contact with the culture of Afghanistan has given western civilization indigestion. As of the writing of this, the result of the absorbtion of Afganaistan into the world community has not occurred.
"It is written", Ipso Facto
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