Since we're about political populism this month, let's talk about values a little bit. This term which is most often used in the plural, and is being so overused in recent times for all sorts of occasions and purposes: from political debates to the regular Sunday sermon, from TV talk-shows to newspaper headlines. Some prefer to put some adjectives
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How limited? Like in the US, or like in the UK, or like in France? Or like in Sweden? Or maybe like in Singapore?
Military Power/.Aggression
Like in Russia?
Ps. You omitted "political correctness", "moral high horse" and "hypocrisy".
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It's a sliding scale. They all are. The more limited, the better, in my opinion, but the essence is that government is not totalitarian, it allows civil life to exist outside the scope of the state. There are places in civil life where the state has no cause or let.
Like in Russia?
Sure. I never said these were universal goods, or values that could not be turned to foolish or evil ends. Of course, I also said none of these were confined to the "West," so since Russia is failing currently to live up to any number of the other values I've mentioned, perhaps they are falling outside the parameters of the discussion.
"political correctness", "moral high horse" and "hypocrisy".
I admitted there are probably more. Although I think you could put those down to "Affluence" combining with "Toleration" and "Intellectual Freedom." Hypocrisy is a value found only in places where there are homo sapiens.
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Most of Europe would beg to differ. As would Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and so on and so forth.
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What I'm trying to achieve with these questions is to discern something that distinguishes "Westernness" from the "non-Westernness". At least in your mind.
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If you look at the US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, to varying degrees they all have societies that exhibit those "values" each in their own way and with their own emphasis. This isn't physics or chemistry. You aren't going to get hard and fast rules or laws here.
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[Edit: You can use "principles" but that tends to connote a set of ideas that are more rigid. So, some parts of your "values" are "principles," but other things can also be included in "values", but be more negotiable. You can also use "standards" but that tends to seem prescriptive, "my principles lead me to maintain certain "standards", for example. "Way of Life" is clumsy, in my opinion and it also includes too much, it embraces all parts of a society and clouds the issue.]
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The Western model was imposed onto Japan, and was imported into Taiwan. Guess from where?
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I do think that the West needed the ethical and philosophical foundation established in large part by Christianity, but I don't see that Christianity itself makes much difference to Western culture any more. It is baked in the cultural cake, certainly, but like vanilla, what it adds is subtle and hard to distinguish from Enlightenment, Pragmatism, Existentialism, or any number of other important intellectual movements.
I don't think capitalism, per se, is as important as free markets and competition. In any case, the only reason they work is the Rule of Law and the protection of private property. Without that, all that hard work and innovation is for nothing.
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