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The purpose of this site is to try and get the world to start dealing with the interaction between culture and success in a mature and intelligent manner. Poll: Do you believe culture influences success? Yes 67.03% No 17.5% Uncertain 15.3% - Newest Articles - Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. - Categories - - All Articles - Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. This 1920 work by Roger Babson is a classic with in its genre. It promotes the traditional, pre-1960s explanation for the connection between success and culture. Current events in Zimbabwe are giving us an unprecedented opportunity to measure and judge the effect of white settlement and colonization in Africa. Average US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion. Max Weber's claim that Protestantism is more conducive to success than Catholicism and that Calvinism is in particular more successful is widely repeated and rarely examined. We need to recognize that culture is the personality of a group or race and we must see culture and having seen it, make it a work of art. The moral justification for welfare is supposed to be that we are temporarily helping out our fellow man through a rough stretch of road or helping the disabled permanently. If it is to become a system for continually transferring wealth from one group to another the people behind this change owe us an explanation. The great taboo of our age is not speaking about race, but speaking about culture. Bourgeoisie is more than just a term of abuse used by the Left, it refers to a real people who led real lives. Selections from the Federal Outlook Selections from a 1960's Rhodesian newspaper. How Africa Underdeveloped Africa Africa is the poorest place in the world. Why? Will Famine Come to Zimbabwe? The end of commercial farming in Zimbabwe could plunge the country into famine. The Tragedy of the Zimbabwe Commons Communally owned property always has and always will suffer from the 'tragedy of the commons' problem. Band Aid Africa recieves $15 billion a year in aid. Is it helping? Culture is to the group what personality is to the individual. Civilization is to the group what enlightenment is to the individual. All groups have cultures, but not all cultures are civilized. If all cultures were civilized than the term would have no descriptive quality. Civilization does have a descriptive quality and it is something worth achieving and defending. Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. This 1920 work by Roger Babson is a classic with in its genre. It promotes the traditional, pre-1960s explanation for the connection between success and culture. Average US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion. We need to recognize that culture is the personality of a group or race and we must see culture and having seen it, make it a work of art. The moral justification for welfare is supposed to be that we are temporarily helping out our fellow man through a rough stretch of road or helping the disabled permanently. If it is to become a system for continually transferring wealth from one group to another the people behind this change owe us an explanation. The great taboo of our age is not speaking about race, but speaking about culture. |
"Civilization is ultimately dependent on the ability of men to cooperate."
Roger Babson
The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. Its important to note that the word civilization was originally singular. There was no reference to Western Civilization as opposed to Chinese Civilization. There was only civilization and you either did not have it or had it to varying degrees. Those with the most were the most advanced. Additionally, the concept of civilization was tightly bound to the idea of moral virtue. Virtue was not inseparable from civilization. The existence of virtue in the uncivilized as individuals was always recognized, but when moral virtue was recognized in a society this society was recognized as having risen to a level of civilization proportional to it's virtue.
These ideas were not controversial before the 1960s. Leftists such as Karl Marx would refer to various groups as being civilized or uncivilized and backward. The secular saint Mohandas Gandhi wrote that several ethnic groups within India were "jungli" and would have to be dealt with militarily after independence. Jungli is a rough Indian equivalent for uncivilized and has the same root as the Indian word jungle, which has been adopted by English speakers. Gandhi clearly believed that the term jungli was disparaging because he later apologized for calling the Assamese jungli, claiming that he had been misinformed by others. In the past no one ever argued whether or not some were jungli and some not, they only argued over who was jungli and who was not.
All this changed during the '60s. Since then referring to any group as uncivilized has been viewed as being uncivilized. Civilization became plural, making it a synonym for culture. We speak of every group as having had a Civilization unique to itself. This conjoining of culture and civilization is meant to eliminate the very idea of civilization. It certainly seems to be working.
The current approach to income differences is very simple and can be explained much more quickly than the old approach. The entire explanation is to say that all cultures are equally good at succeeding and that differences in income are entirely due to power and politics. Some minor exceptions are made for obscure groups such as the Bushmen of southern Africa and certain Amazonian tribes who are said to be unconcerned with money. That's the whole thing.
The older approach was more subtle. It recognized that man is constantly threatened with the temptation to be selfish and put his interests above those of others. When all in a group do this it is impossible for them to rise above the most backward level. Only by having many, if not most of its individuals choose to be moral and virtuous can the group as a whole rise in the world. Of course, if one member out of the whole is selfish while the others are not he will gain the double benefit of his own selfish behavior plus the benefit of having neighbors who are not as he is. So the key to the whole thing was ensuring that as high a percentage of the group as possible was willing to behave in a manner best summarized as civilized. This meant all sorts of means of promoting the right behavior through education, religion, intellectual life and social pressures. A useful summation of this approach is Roger Babson's statement "The best barometer of civilization is the desire and ability of men to cooperate."
Currently the only explanation competing with the dominant theory of power-distorted distribution is laissez faire economics. This system is also opposed to the older concept of civilization. In laissez faire the only thing we need to learn is that we have nothing to learn. The term itself is French for 'leave it alone' and this is what the system proposes. We should leave things alone. Using education, religion, intellectual life and social pressures to promote moral behavior is not the answer, the answer is to leave it alone. This system does not explain income differences any better than the dominant system of blaming power-distorted distributions. All ethnic, racial and religious groups within America receive the same degree of laissez faire and yet all have different incomes. This trend is found across the world. While the more economically free countries do have higher incomes than the less economically free, degrees of economic freedom are better at explaining income variations within a cultural group and not effective at explaining income variations between different cultural groupings.
I think the best way to give the reader an understanding of the older ways of explaining income differences across cultures is to use extended quotations from the very famous Thucydides and the not very famous Roger Babson. Thucydides was either the first historian or perhaps the second after Herodotus. Some people become confused by this description. It does not mean that others did not record events prior to Thucydides. What is meant is that he was the first to record both the good and the bad of his own kind so that future generations could improve their decision making by studying this accurate record of the past. In his famous History of the Peloponnesian War describes how the Greeks came to be advanced. He discusses how the defeat of common criminals such as pirates was essential and how the Greeks came to be civilized. Roger Babson lived in the first half of the 20th century and was famous within his own time, though is now obscure. Unlike Thucydides he was not the first at anything, but his writings give a clear understanding of how the connection between economic success and being successfully civilized was once regarded, and I hope, will be regarded so again.
Thucydides:
And the first person known to us by tradition as having established a navy is Minos. He made himself master of what is now called the Hellenic sea, and ruled over the Cyclades, into most of which he sent the first colonies, expelling the Carians and appointing his own sons governors; and thus did his best to put down piracy in those waters, a necessary step to secure the revenues for his own use.
For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast and islands, as communication by sea became more common, were tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men; the motives being to serve their own cupidity and to support the needy. They would fall upon a town unprotected by walls, and consisting of a mere collection of villages, and would plunder it; indeed, this came to be the main source of their livelihood, no disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some glory. An illustration of this is furnished by the honour with which some of the inhabitants of the continent still regard a successful marauder, and by the question we find the old poets everywhere representing the people as asking of voyagers- "Are they pirates?"- as if those who are asked the question would have no idea of disclaiming the imputation, or their interrogators of reproaching them for it. The same rapine prevailed also by land.
And even at the present day many of Hellas still follow the old fashion, the Ozolian Locrians for instance, the Aetolians, the Acarnanians, and that region of the continent; and the custom of carrying arms is still kept up among these continentals, from the old piratical habits. The whole of Hellas used once to carry arms, their habitations being unprotected and their communication with each other unsafe; indeed, to wear arms was as much a part of everyday life with them as with the barbarians. And the fact that the people in these parts of Hellas are still living in the old way points to a time when the same mode of life was once equally common to all. The Athenians were the first to lay aside their weapons, and to adopt an easier and more luxurious mode of life; indeed, it is only lately that their rich old men left off the luxury of wearing undergarments of linen, and fastening a knot of their hair with a tie of golden grasshoppers, a fashion which spread to their Ionian kindred and long prevailed among the old men there. On the contrary, a modest style of dressing, more in conformity with modern ideas, was first adopted by the Lacedaemonians, the rich doing their best to assimilate their way of life to that of the common people. They also set the example of contending naked, publicly stripping and anointing themselves with oil in their gymnastic exercises. Formerly, even in the Olympic contests, the athletes who contended wore belts across their middles; and it is but a few years since that the practice ceased. To this day among some of the barbarians, especially in Asia, when prizes for boxing and wrestling are offered, belts are worn by the combatants. And there are many other points in which a likeness might be shown between the life of the Hellenic world of old and the barbarian of to-day.
With respect to their towns, later on, at an era of increased facilities of navigation and a greater supply of capital, we find the shores becoming the site of walled towns, and the isthmuses being occupied for the purposes of commerce and defence against a neighbour. But the old towns, on account of the great prevalence of piracy, were built away from the sea, whether on the islands or the continent, and still remain in their old sites. For the pirates used to plunder one another, and indeed all coast populations, whether seafaring or not.
The islanders, too, were great pirates. These islanders were Carians and Phoenicians, by whom most of the islands were colonized, as was proved by the following fact. During the purification of Delos by Athens in this war all the graves in the island were taken up, and it was found that above half their inmates were Carians: they were identified by the fashion of the arms buried with them, and by the method of interment, which was the same as the Carians still follow. But as soon as Minos had formed his navy, communication by sea became easier, as he colonized most of the islands, and thus expelled the malefactors. The coast population now began to apply themselves more closely to the acquisition of wealth, and their life became more settled; some even began to build themselves walls on the strength of their newly acquired riches.
(entire work can be found here)
King Minos is here credited with building the first navy. Minos was the foremost king of the Cretan golden age which begat all Greek advancement. So what is a navy? If a navy is a fleet of armed ships, then how is a navy different from a pirate fleet? The difference is the Arthurian formula of 'Might for Right'. The armed ships of King Minos became a navy when Minos forbade them to be pirates, and from this securing of virtue came the success. Notice this line "The coast population now began to apply themselves more closely to the acquisition of wealth, and their life became more settled." Once the navy guaranteed that wealth would not be stolen, the Greeks began working towards wealth. This same point was made by Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century and is today referred to as the Laffer Curve.
I have scanned and posted Roger Babson's entire "Foundations of Prosperity". Babson started each chapter with a short summary. Here are all the summaries:
While fifty-one per cent of the people have their eyes on the goal of integrity, our investments are secure; but with fifty-one per cent of them headed in the wrong direction, our investments are valueless. The first fundamental of prosperity is Integrity.
This religion which we talk about for an hour a week, on Sunday, is not only the vital force which protects our community, but it is the vital force which makes our communities. The power of our spiritual forces has not yet been tapped.
Industry is the mother of invention. Struggle, sacrifice and burning midnight oil have produced the cotton gin, the sewing machine, the printing press, the steam engine, the electric motor, the telephone, the incandescent lamp and the other great inventions of civilization. Some religious enthusiasts think only of the "lilies of the fields" and forget the parable of the talents.
Our industrial system has resulted in making many men economic eunuchs. The salvation of our cities, the salvation of our industries and the salvation of our nation depend on discovering something which will revive in man that desire to produce and joy in production which he had instinctively when he was a small boy.
We have gone day over things like steam, electricity, water power, buildings, railroads, and ships and we have forgotten the human soul upon which all of these things depend and from which all of these things originate.
The first step is to give more thought and attention to people, to establish more points of contact. Let us do humanly, individually, man to man, what we are trying to do in a great big way.
Just as our property is safe only as the other fellow's property is safe, just as our daughter is safe only as the other fellow's daughter is safe, so it also is true that in order to develop the human soul in other men, we have to give those men something.
The greatest resources in the world today are human resources, not resources of iron, copper and lumber. The great need of the hour is to strengthen this human foundation and you business men are the one group that can do it.
Panics are caused by spiritual causes rather than financial. Prosperity is the result of righteousness rather than of material things.
Become saturated with Christ's principles, be clean and upright, cooperate with one another, have faiths serve, trust the Almighty for the results, and you will never have to worry about property. "If you will do these things, all of the others will be given to you."
The time is coming when the Church will awake to its great opportunities. The greatest industry in America but the most backward and inefficiently operated, is still in the stage-coach class.
These ideas have all been stated hundreds of different ways. The most romantic telling would likely be the King Arthur legend in which Arthur declares that no longer will the law be Might Is Right but will now be Might For Right and thus begins a golden age for England. When we abandon the concept of civilization we lose more than just an interesting story about Art, Ginny, and Lance. We lose almost everything. The current system of declaring that all cultures must be equally good is not working and will not work. Wherever in this world the law is Might For Right we see the outstretched hands of emaciated beggars. Laissez faire cannot save us either. It was not laissez faire or Political Correctness that started Greece, it was the navy of King Minos.