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GEOPOLITICS / PHILOSOPHY
DR. DAVID STARKEY
There are no universal values or human rights, argues Dr. David Starkey at our St. George's Day conference ... Our Crisis is Rooted in the West's post-1945 'Universal' World Order. Can Pride &Patriotism Save Us?
Original article:
Burgess COMMENTARY
Dear Brendan
I watched this last evening. It was fun and full of interesting facts pulled from all sorts of writings, ancient and modern. It reminded me of a class in 'philosophy' I had at school that was rather similar ... taught by Mr. Lucas, our classics teacher.
David Sharkey struck me as quite pompous and full of it ... and very confident, as he should have been, because I think he was working with a lot of pretty solid facts. The problem is that he was not working with ALL the facts, but only a rather modest set of convenient facts.
His thesis that everything went wrong going back to the creation of the UN in 1945 is not a very good starting point ... and that the UN is essentially a total waste of time does not fit at all with my own world view, as you know.
I agree with him a lot on the idea that different people in different places have different value systems and different priorities and that this is a foundational flaw of almost anything that tries to be universal.
There ARE some things that are universal ... like the laws of nature ... the laws of gravity, motion, etc. People are way too complicated for these rather simple scientific ideas to be applied to human behavior. I consider that to be a problem ... but the underlying rather simple laws of nature are in fact universal.
I don't recall him comparing the 21 years between the end of WWI and the start of WWII and the 21 years from the end of WWII to 1966. There were massively different policy choices made in 1919 and in 1946 with 1946 way better ... and better has continued. It bothers me that that outcomes over this time have been only modestly better and only for relatively few people when they could and should have been hugely better and for everyone. In a very complex world there are far too many aspects of the world's operation that degrade things and too little understanding of what these are and how they should be managed.
Dr. Sharkey never once mentioned the role of engineering and technology in enabling quality of life at any point in time ... not to mention enabling military intervention and conquest.
He almost got to talk about the role leaders play in setting the course of history ... and the role the people make in setting the direction of democracy. He did not talk about the role that 'power' has had in changing the world ... but almost got there several times.
Thanks ... I will try to listen to it again soon to see if my observations this morning stand up when I have fully woken up !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PeterB
Peter Burgess
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#NCFConf22
Our Crisis is Rooted in the West's post-1945 'Universal' World Order. Can Pride &Patriotism Save Us?
19,320 views
Premiered May 8, 2022
The New Culture Forum ...139K subscribers
There are no universal values or human rights, argues Dr. David Starkey at our St. George's Day conference. The West's creation of international law, and international bodies to govern an international rules based system lies at the heart of the West's current problems. The West believes all peoples and regions of this world share universal beliefs and values. They don't. Russia and China understand this. We don't.
Just at The West's moment of triumph, when it saw its enemies vanquished, it finds itself in its greatest identity crisis. How did the West end up mired in the identity politics of race, gender and sexuality? Why is it losing dominance on the global stage to Russia and China, the latter a superpower created by the West via entry to the WTO.
Are patriotism and pride in the values and achievements we've inherited from our ancestors enough to help restore the West? These and many other issue are discussed by Dr. David Starkey in this fascinating talk delivered at 'Believe in Britain & The West', the New Culture Forum's 2022 spring conference, held, appropriately, on St. George's Day.
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