V. S. Naipaul has argued that Western civilization is the “universal civilization” that “fits all men.” At a superficial level much of Western culture has indeed permeated the rest of the world. At a more basic level, however, Western concepts differ fundamentally from those prevalent in other civilizations. Western ideas of individualism, liberalism, constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law, democracy, free markets, the separation of church and state, often have little resonance in Islamic, Confucian, Japanese, Hindu, Buddhist or Orthodox cultures. Western efforts to propagate each ideas produce instead a reaction against “human rights imperialism” and a reaffirmation of indigenous values, as can be seen in the support for religious fundamentalism by the younger generation in non-Western cultures. The very notion that there could be a “universal civilization” is a Western idea, directly at odds with the particularism of most Asian societies and their emphasis on what distinguishes one people from another. Indeed, the author of a review of 100 comparative studies of values in different societies concluded that “the values that are most important in the West are least important worldwide.”

(emphasis mine)

https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Politics/Huntington-Clash.htm

  • deathtoreddit@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    Continuing on this

    Western efforts to propagate each ideas produce instead a reaction against “human rights imperialism” and a reaffirmation of indigenous values,

    Justifiably… as said from above

    as can be seen in the support for religious fundamentalism by the younger generation in non-Western cultures.

    I call bullshit… Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South-Asia aren’t really religiously-defined

    Besides, in the Middle East and other Muslim countries, I’d argue religion, if its not an opium of the people, it is the proxy of a new economic mode of organization, or at least a political organization…

    Similarly, at another stage of development a century earlier, Cromwell and the English people had borrowed from the Old Testament the speech, emotions, and illusions for their bourgeois revolution. When the real goal had been achieved and the bourgeois transformation of English society had been accomplished, Locke supplanted Habakkuk.

    The very notion that there could be a “universal civilization” is a Western idea, directly at odds with the particularism of most Asian societies and their emphasis on what distinguishes one people from another.

    And what does this universal civilization presuppose? A standard of who? China? India? Indonesia (This was written in the context of ‘End of History’, as Francis Fuk-his-ma said, so you can guess whose values to adopt)