logoalt Hacker News

sophaclesyesterday at 8:58 PM1 replyview on HN

No. One can beleive in the enlightenment ideals without placing north america, europe, and the relations between them as the most important thing.

For example - one could argue (quite successfully) that the US and Europe propping up dictators in south america and middle east to secure easy access to oil against the wishes and election results of those nations is opposed to many enlightenment ideals, but it is still atlanticism by prioritizing north american and european relations and preservation of values within their little bubble.

Also, just because there was much good resulting from enlightenment thinking, we also got things like the slave trade, the belgian congo, various genocides and so on from it... all of which are pretty bad.

The very notion that the enlightenment had all the answers and that there is nothing more to improve or learn is itself anti-enlightenment.

(I know there were abolitionists in the enlightnement,and examples of people opposed to all the other bad ideas i mentioned, but there are plenty of people who "rationally" argued for them too)


Replies

ultrablacktoday at 1:12 AM

Slave trade was not a product of the enlightenment. That idea is 1000s of years old.

show 1 reply