Yuratuhl wrote:
No cross-contamination in caste systems preventing potential growth, women's suppression marginalizing half of a given population in (as an example) conservative Muslim countries, unnecessary belligerence and a practice of suicide rather than adaptation in feudal-through-imperial Japan, the waves of frustration among sexually repressed youths in Korea.
I think you're significantly more liberal here than I am. I take the fundamentally conservative viewpoint that order and stability are more important than growth - and more than that, what makes gains tenable, is order and stability.
[liberal and conservative according to traditional meaning]
By the same token, you're looking at only one side of the caste system and bushido ethos. Yes, they resulted in a lot of perverse behavior and loss of talent, but as moral systems, they were also powerful motivators for individual aspiration that translated into social progress - and unlike liberal/libertarian systems, they offered a definite social framework that kept ambition in check.
I simply don't accept the claim that women have something to contribute to the professional world. Scarcity is no longer a concern, and in most of the areas that define modern social progress, women are very unequal to men. That's not to say that all women are inept or that some aren't extraordinary, I just don't believe that bringing women into the workforce is worth the social costs. And flatly, I believe that women are a corrosive influence on most institutions.
Which brings us to Korea. Korea's a good study in those "costs". Life without purpose, ambition run amok with no moral or social structure.
So let me ask you. Where would you put countries like Germany or France or Canada or Sweden - "basically well-run" - on the Shame Meter? They have less "shame" than we do for sure...but they also have strong ethical frameworks that are usually of religious or feudal origin. Never political or legal.
Where do you think shame should come from? Or what other sort of social force should keep ambition and depravity in check, give people a sense of purpose?
