bernie43

Orientalism maybe would have been a more proper name of OP?

"Taoism vs my Western Mind" is one of many threads here that contrast East and West.

Would it be fair to say that Modernism is typical West and Post-Modernism is typical East? If I read the Buddhists in this forum don't they tend to more "pragmatic" views like the "relativism" of experience. While West tend to me Modern in that there are Objective truths.

In that sense I am a Modernist. But I don't share the Optimism of many Modernists. When Science reach the masses then faith in gods wil lfade away. That is the Modernists battle cry! I am Pessimistic about such bold claims.

So I am neither Modernist nor Post-Modern nor Buddhist nor Taoist or similar path or ways of life.

But Naturalism could be West in that it claim the independence of the observer. There exist a factual world out there even if no observer is there to look at it.

Atomists like Democritos and Lucretius is typical West?

Reductionism is typical West?

SocioBiology, Evolutionary Psychology, Neuroscience is typical West.

Do you see my point?

Bernie

PS maybe I cosed the wrong term for my OP? should I change it to Orientalism

Here is link to wiki on Occi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occidentalism

perfectbite

The human mind is based on consciousness and no matter how distinctions are derived or how they are presented, the intellectual capacity of the human mind is the same.

The human spirit however can be influenced by cultural mores or views.

The general take of occidentals on orientals is that they are mystic and inscrutable.

The general take of orientals on occidentals is that they are brutish barbarians.

My focus is on enlightenment and in my view neither group has the edge on enlightenment because enlightenment belongs to consciouness and not to a cultural milieu or mindset.

The Chinese astronauts just returned to Earth. Could they have accomplished putting men in space without occidental knowledge or an occidentally developed mindset of some sort? Probably not.

We occidentals look at their mysticism and say 'wowee!'

The orientals look at our scientific empiricism and say 'wowee!'

Even though it took a while, it is a win/win situation.

bernie43

East, or some part fo east have "Karma".

Could that taint their outloook on life?

the way they drive carelessly in the big cities seems to be due to they trust their karma to take care fo if they survive or not.

another difference I notized? are that like some fo us Swedes at least Japaneeze are not much for verbal confrontations.

the almost say yes even if they mean no.

It is kind of unpolite to say no so they say yes in a way that are a polite way of saying no. They laugh a lot in groups which seems related.

When I go into a Mall for tools and electronics almost all is made in east. Made in China on most of the easy to buy. Software is beginning to be big in India?

East will take over kind of in the future.

perfectbite

What goes around come around. In all of China, in the 1920's CE, there wasn't even the machinery to make those thumbtacks with the triangular point pressed out of the middle of the disc. They had to have simple, simple things like that imported as a luxury item. Ffifty years before that the trade in cheap opium, deliberately 'hooking' the Chinese on the stuff, made tons of money for the British crown but at the cost of great suffering for the Chinese people: the adults of whole communities selling everything off and just dreaming their lives away day in day out.

The British in India, in an effort to produce a market for British cotton textiles, had an ongoing program where British troops throughout India smashed every weaving loom, small or large, that they could get their hands on for years.

The Western missionaries weren't exporting a religion to Asia they were exporting a great White way of life. Mormons used to tell the dark skinned natives that if they became Mormon their skins would become a shade lighter and a lighter coloured skin was pleasing in God's eyes and God was more likely to allow them into heaven.

*

It sounds like a plan to me. Flood your competition's market with cheap goods until that nation or community cannot afford to produce their own goods and they themselves close down and sell off their production and manufacturing facilities and lay everyone off (shattering the local tax base) then buy the means of distribution and charge what you want. China is interested in investing in the bottleneck roads leading to and from Oakland's container ship docking facility so that their stuff gets away from the ships quicker! I am sure the Europeans did the same in their time to strut the world's stage. In fact, I think the Bund in Shanghai was built with the same intention.

What is Sweden's balance of trade? Plus or minus? Here in the US greed rules and the same folks who would sell their mothers are paying minimal taxes and are running the show into the ground and living in manicured gated communities complete with golf courses.

The thinking among the CEOs here seems to be 'He who dies with the most toys wins' and any call for a sense of responsibility to the community is drowned out by jeering backed by deep pockets. That is the trouble with putting up walls, they define you and folks know where you live.

bernie43

wow, atheism sure is political?

Bernie

perfectbite

"Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it."

never been there

And those who won't forget history repeat it willingly.

bernie43

Hey, it is to ooff topic. Try to get back on issue.

At one time I coun'ted threads and almost all of them promoted Buddhism or Taoism. All eastern and not western way of thinking.

What is the proper term for western thinking?

Naturalism?

Bernie

IsItJustMe

There's more than one type of thinking around here. Naturalism would be one. Materialism would be another. Then there are just all kinds of idealism.

I think it cuts the other way, too, though I'm much more familiar with western philosophy just cause that's where I'm from. I don't think you can mix up Confucianism with Zen Buddhism willy-nilly.

And surely that's part of orientalism, this lumping of every system of thought from Egypt east under one label, as if the person doing it was unaware that there were a few differences between a Taoist and a Sunni Muslim.