Dishonesty, dlj? Or a red herring?
Mike Shupp sent this query to the wsn list: How do you account for the rise of
Europe?
dlj replied to the wsn list as follows (emphasis added -- jb): "It amazes me
that Mike can't get this right -- but then he is an American, from the land
where a gun is called an "equalizer" or a "peacekeeper" and the big bombs are
called a "nuclear umbrella." THE THING THAT HAS DISTINGUISHED NORTH EUROPEANS
OVER THE PAST FIVE HUNDRED YEARS. the Gunpowder Years (tm), IS SIMPLY THE WILL
TO MASS VIOLENCE, AND THE WILLINGNESS TO DIRECT IT AT OTHER CULTURES AND
INDIVIDUALS, and their cats, dogs, libraries, customs, tax policies, and gods."
Now, this assertion that there is some unique European mentality, sometimes
described as rationality and progressiveness, at other times as acquisitiveness
and predatoriness, is a very troublesome matter.* Those who arge this way
sometimes claim that the mentality arose in ancient or medieval times; others
claim, simply, that it is genetic -- i.e., racial.
So I hit "reply" on my CompuServe menu and typed:
"dlj: And how did Europeans acquire this "will to mass violence" and
"willingness to direct it to other cultures and individuals? Is it in the
genes?"
I thought that, if you reply to a public message broadcast to the wsn list as a
whole, your reply is also sent to the list as a whole. When dlj then replied to
me, I assumed it also was a public stateement broadcast on the list.
dlg replied: "Yes, its in the genes (and also of course in the structure
of the social environment). The question is not how North Europeans acquired it
surely. The question is how so many other peoples around the planet kep it under
control." Then he adds the thought that other peoples eat a better diet, and
don't have the "gencoide of the Canaanites" and "St. Augustine's bloody sword"
as a religious background.
So: over to you, dlj. Why do you give significance to genetic factors? Why are
you defensive about admitting it instead of explaining it?
This is a fundamental issue: Do Europeans have any mental qualities that help to
explain their "rise" relative to all other societies? Is it in the genes? Or is
it in the world-system?
Jim Blaut
*For instance, this is the central issue in debates over Afrocentrism.