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As school board trustees we will
advocate for the following:
- We will advocate that our schools teach students about the significant contributions of different cultures and major civilizations including those of the West. This can be done without denigrating Western culture which has become fashionable in some academic circles.
- We will advocate for the achievements of Western culture to be taught and openly celebrated. These achievements include being the first civilization to formally abolish slavery, emancipating women, classical liberal values, and creating the modern world.
- We will advocate to teach young people not to take the freedoms associated with Western societies for granted.
First of all, Landes shows that the Western scientific and economic take-off of the 16th century did not come out of nowhere: far from the cliché of the "Dark Ages", medieval Europe was one of the most innovative and inventive periods in history.
— Guillaume Gau | Why the West (@why_the_west) November 21, 2023
Here are just a few examples: pic.twitter.com/RLO48McOxb
For Landes, the key factor behind the rise of the West is a mentality geared towards progress, the quest for knowledge and innovation. This is what he calls "the invention of invention", or "joie de trouver". pic.twitter.com/MeAm3U2dZX
— Guillaume Gau | Why the West (@why_the_west) November 21, 2023
According to Landes, this innovation-oriented mentality has 4 main sources:
— Guillaume Gau | Why the West (@why_the_west) November 21, 2023
1. respect for manual labour in the Judeo-Christian tradition;
2. the subordination of nature to man in the Judeo-Christian tradition; pic.twitter.com/2wHZgvmSzO
Landes shows that China could have initiated the Industrial Revolution and overtaken Europe, but was hampered by the absence of a free market and institutionalized property rights, the limited role of women and an imperial bureaucracy that stifled innovation. pic.twitter.com/fv2j8DJZfR
— Guillaume Gau | Why the West (@why_the_west) November 21, 2023
"If we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference" writes Landes.
— Guillaume Gau | Why the West (@why_the_west) November 21, 2023
I try to sum up this extremely dense 800-page book in one sentence: it is the specific culture that explains the Western economic and scientific take-off. pic.twitter.com/ehlGhjJJ0U
Sources :
— Guillaume Gau | Why the West (@why_the_west) November 21, 2023
- David S. Landes (1998). The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor.
- image 1st post: the Sainte Chapelle (Holy Chapel), Paris
"Of course not all cultures are equally valid"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 29, 2024
Tory leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch says "cultures that believe in child marriage, or that women don't have equal rights" are not in line with "Western principles" #BBCLauraK https://t.co/efV6wgVKgw pic.twitter.com/xOGLlyXc0M
The ban on #cousinmarriage is one explanation for the origin of The West's genius & exceptionalism
— Rafe Heydel-Mankoo (@RafHM) December 11, 2024
I discuss this in my @triggerpod interview 👇
Harvard's Prof J Heinrich argues that the Western mind evolved differently & was a global anomaly because of the 9th century Western… pic.twitter.com/8gK3Y3ztzc