[FoRK] Nietzsche's Severe Rationalism

[Luis Villa]

On Jan 29, 2008 6:07 PM, Kevin Elliott <k-elliott at wiu.edu> wrote:
>
> On Jan 29, 2008, at 2:28 PM, Corinna Schultz wrote:
>
> >> and showed that Enlightened faith in progress was
> >> just as illusory as belief in an afterlife.
> >
> > I agree with this sentiment, and I would think that it's obvious. Look
> > at all those dystopic/post-apocalyptic sci-fi stories. "Progress" is
> > as much a fallacy as the notion of "more evolved".
>
> This is one of those ideas that I completely reject.  By and
> reasonable measure we've progressed.  We've systematically
> exterminated the horrors and ills of previous generations.  Yes, we've
> made mistakes, and it hasn't been a smooth path.  BUT... in defense of
> my belief I present the following puzzle:
>
> Divide all of human history into 100 year chunks.  You can now choose
> one of those centuries to be randomly born into (no cherry picking
> like paths!).  I submit that the sensible choice is the 20th century.

"I submit that any choice other the 20th century evinces insanity or
historical ignorance."

There, fixed that for you.

see, e.g., http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10278703:

"Several archaeologists and anthropologists now argue that violence
was much more pervasive in hunter-gatherer society than in more recent
eras. From the
!Kung in the Kalahari to the Inuit in the Arctic and the aborigines in
Australia, two-thirds of modern hunter-gatherers are in a state of
almost constant tribal warfare, and nearly 90% go to war at least once
a year. War is a big word for dawn raids, skirmishes and lots of
posturing, but death rates are high—usually around 25-30% of adult
males die from homicide. The warfare death rate of 0.5% of the
population per year that Lawrence Keeley of the University of Illinois
calculates as typical of hunter-gatherer societies would equate to 2
billion people dying during the 20th century."

And that's just the violence; ignore the starvation, disease, etc. And
if you think modern Christianists are bad, have I got some medieval
Christians (or child-sacrificing Aztecs, or...) for you! :)

Modernity: the worst option, except for all the others.
Luis