Re: For MKelkar, Kishore and all those other anti-linguists

--- tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com,
> "david_russell_watson" <liberty@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, kishore patnaik
>
> > <kishorepatnaik09@> wrote:
> > >
> > > > For every such incident, I can show hundreds
> of such incidents
> > > > happening in Britain and other racist European
> countries.
> >
> > - edit -
> >
> > > Coming from a society where racism is an
> inherent part of society,
> >
> > We all come from societies where racism is or was
> an inherent part.
> > That's an unfortunately inherent trait of humans
> uninformed by the
> > Enlightenment.
>
> I don't understand the reference to 'Enlightenment',
> although I've
> seen similar instances of this use many places. The
> way we were taught
> history in school, the Absolutist Monarchy in its
> last stages had a
> project to educate and enlighten its citizens,
> seeking legitimacy that
> way. That doesn't change the fact that Absolutist
> Monarchy was
> despotism, and the absolute opposite of democracy.
> Enlightening in
> this form is only possible under coercion.
>
>
> Torsten
>

We could do a course on Enlightenment but it would
take a while. David's correct that many Western values
spring from the Enlightenment: representative
democracy, capitalism, communism, socialism, modern
scientific inquiry, empiricism, the idea of linear
progress, universal human rights, universal education,
rationalism, etc.
But colonial empires, totalitarianism, the Panoptic
state, etc are also fruits of the Enlightenment, as is
Linguistics