“Which cultural traditions are we talking about?”
1. Monogamy (the only system in which women become anything other than receptacles for semen, and maybe the most distinctive EVOLUTIONARY trait of the Northern European peoples. In most other parts of the world, e.g. the Mideast, surplus production goes directly into re-production. Look at the number of progeny of old ibn Saud, the Bedouin who owned the oil when the oil became a valuable resource. The Saudi royal family is now up into the thousands and growing fast, and old King Saud died when, the 1930s? The genetic inclination towards monogamy is the ultimate source not only of science but of constitutional government. By the way “feminism” is not what I am talking about. The weird distortion called feminism is probably more than anything else a cri de couer caused by the absence of men --- real men, you understand.)
2. Morality. A moral system in which the good is defined not by what is good for me, or in my self-interest, but by criteria that apply across the board. This also is necessary if there is going to be constitutional government.
3. Feudalism, by which I mean, power resides in powerful families who are themselves spread across the land. Power does not get concentrated into one place (the King, the government, etc), as happens almost everywhere else in the world. |
