AC, you racists* always leap to false conclusions. Virtuous Victorian Values are not "Anglo" in nature, nor particularly those of Queen Victoria. It's descriptive of a set of values which were generally ascendant and consequential to the great success of the British Empire which delivered Enlightenment ideas to so many. There were exponents of Liberty such as John Stuart Mill, but he had no monopoly on thinking about such things or espousing them and of course changed his mind on various matters. Confucian values are reportedly Virtous Victorian Values as far as rumours of them go [Google could give me the details]. Jesus was espousing some VVV a couple of thousand years ago [so they say].
VVV are like english - anyone can adopt them as their own and use them. The more who do, the easier and better things are.
Of course "Anglos" have antecedents from all over the place. I got my 23andMe results and as expected [from educated guesswork] by "Anglo" background has plenty of southern European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and across to India [with some North African]. That's the nature of human life.
The reason the Anglos were so successful was that they adopted said VVV while so many places in the world were run by totalitarian tribal barbarians. The local yokels were only too keen to ditch their cannibalistic bosses and make merry with English ladies or sailors, who were often enough happy to accommodate them.
See how China is going ahead by adopting just a few principles of VVV. Combining those few principles with vast economies of scale, they are really making headway.
Note that they do not humour criminals who are executed without too much messing around. They don't allow Islamic Jihad to run riot. Capitalism has been turned somewhat loose and "too get rich is glorious" or something like that. Democracy has nothing to do with VVV - on the contrary, mob rule has little to recommend it and especially so when the mob is more interested in opm than VVV.
Japan is still quite strong on VVV. Theft and armed robbery are abnormal. Acting in a civilized way is expected. Individual freedom is undervalued though, and when Takafumi Horie got too uppity, they clobbered him.
Even Germans can have VVV though they tend to break out into another round of Sieg Heil too frequently. It's not as though all the VVV went to England to attend Queen Victoria, like all the vowels went from Wales to Finland, leaving Wales with a shortage and Finland with a surplus. Anyone can use all the VVV and vowels they like without depleting the stocks of other people.
Mqurice
* I trust you understand I don't really think you are racist. It's just that it's important to be the first to make the "racist" accusation because that's considered a winning argument in discussions. It avoids the need for reasoning. As soon as one senses a racial dimension being promoted - such as your Germanic argument, go for the "racist" accusation. It's very fashionable these days. For example anyone disagreeing with Obama is ipso facto a racist. Not to be outdone, people accuse Obama of racism. Which is the old problem of the pot calling the kettle black [which I hasten to add should not be considered a racist expression]. |
