I do not have some avoidance complex. I'm totally fine acknowledging what happened in the past. What I objected to was the view that somehow the past invalidates the present. It's one thing to say that a particular culture or war or whatever shouldn't have happened but it's another to act like it didn't. There can be time when some actions can be undone but as time moves on, that time runs out. There's no going back to the past. What happened happened and now we have to live with it.
Perhaps "improve" is not the right word. It's not about a superior culture, it's just about making one you feel more comfortable in. Like interior decorating. It's not that one style is necessarily better but you can have a preference. And perhaps you find that aspects of minimalism can be worked into your decorating to make it feel better. If one didn't respect parts of another culture, then why would they try and integrate them? No one says "Ugh, that's so horrible, let me make it a part of me."
There's not such a thing as intellectual violence. That's just a silly combination of words. And I've never defended sexual violence either. All I can say is that you have some very odd ideas.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Oof, yes. That's a bad typo.
I do not have some avoidance complex. I'm totally fine acknowledging what happened in the past. What I objected to was the view that somehow the past invalidates the present. It's one thing to say that a particular culture or war or whatever shouldn't have happened but it's another to act like it didn't. There can be time when some actions can be undone but as time moves on, that time runs out. There's no going back to the past. What happened happened and now we have to live with it.
Perhaps "improve" is not the right word. It's not about a superior culture, it's just about making one you feel more comfortable in. Like interior decorating. It's not that one style is necessarily better but you can have a preference. And perhaps you find that aspects of minimalism can be worked into your decorating to make it feel better. If one didn't respect parts of another culture, then why would they try and integrate them? No one says "Ugh, that's so horrible, let me make it a part of me."
There's not such a thing as intellectual violence. That's just a silly combination of words. And I've never defended sexual violence either. All I can say is that you have some very odd ideas.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~