I have been reading commentary on “Western” innovation and its exceptional capabilities for decades always citing the same list of so called unique accomplishments. While there is no doubt that many things were achieved by the wealthy west the truth is we have absolutely no idea how much humanity could have accomplished over the last few centuries because the west has so successfully oppressed 3⁄4 of the population using every means possible keeping millions of potentially genius prodigies from having any means to innovate.
To assume that only the wealthy white population dominated by a history of violent collonialization of the rest of the world, were capable of creating the best of what humanity was capable of is criminally ignorant and racist.
Hugo Chavez opened community centers all over Venezuela and beyond and had hundreds of absolute brilliant prodigies in math, music, science, from age 8 to 80 come out of the woodwork.
Neil Gershenfield from MIT started FabLabs in impoverished communities with amazing results.
Bottom line we have no idea how wonderful the world could have been and it is rapidly looking like we never will.
the west has so successfully oppressed 3⁄4 of the population using every means possible keeping millions of potentially genius prodigies from having any means to innovate
This take on anti-imperialism is new to me. Is this your own interpretation of history, or did you get it from somewhere else?
Moderately tangential, but I am reminded of László Polgár, who famously claims to have raised his daughters into some of history’s greatest female chess players, by adopting a particular training regime.
In particular, he later wanted to try his training regime with an adopted kid:
In 1992, Polgár said that he now wanted “to break the racial barriers in the virtually all-white chess world” by adopting “a black infant from the Third World” whom he would train to become a chess prodigy.[2] Susan recalled in 2005 that, about 15 years earlier, “a very nice Dutch billionaire named Joop van Oosterom” had offered to help Polgár “adopt three boys from a developing country and raise them exactly as they raised us.” Polgár, according to Susan, “really wanted to do it, but my mother talked him out of it. She understood that life is not only about chess and that all the rest would fall on her lap.”[6]
I do get his wife’s perspective, but I’m also kind of bummed they didn’t try, since man if it would’ve actually worked that sure would’ve been some strikingly interesting evidence.
I have been reading commentary on “Western” innovation and its exceptional capabilities for decades always citing the same list of so called unique accomplishments. While there is no doubt that many things were achieved by the wealthy west the truth is we have absolutely no idea how much humanity could have accomplished over the last few centuries because the west has so successfully oppressed 3⁄4 of the population using every means possible keeping millions of potentially genius prodigies from having any means to innovate.
To assume that only the wealthy white population dominated by a history of violent collonialization of the rest of the world, were capable of creating the best of what humanity was capable of is criminally ignorant and racist.
Hugo Chavez opened community centers all over Venezuela and beyond and had hundreds of absolute brilliant prodigies in math, music, science, from age 8 to 80 come out of the woodwork.
Neil Gershenfield from MIT started FabLabs in impoverished communities with amazing results.
Bottom line we have no idea how wonderful the world could have been and it is rapidly looking like we never will.
This take on anti-imperialism is new to me. Is this your own interpretation of history, or did you get it from somewhere else?
Moderately tangential, but I am reminded of László Polgár, who famously claims to have raised his daughters into some of history’s greatest female chess players, by adopting a particular training regime.
In particular, he later wanted to try his training regime with an adopted kid:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Polg%C3%A1r
I do get his wife’s perspective, but I’m also kind of bummed they didn’t try, since man if it would’ve actually worked that sure would’ve been some strikingly interesting evidence.