Re: 希腊的民主 西方的民主 支那的民主

[wanghx]

[QUOTE=ygao;9127]It was because of the Byzantium Empire. An empire is inherently against democracy and innovation.
[/QUOTE]

No.  Even in ancient Greece, they had democracy, then 僭主政治，then 专制帝制。
They had all these even after the democracy collapsed. :)

In fact, in Chinese history, there were also tales about similar pristine "democracy", when the top leader was chosen by 推选 and 禅让。Although there is no historical evidence of how this ever worked, even most people doubt whether it existed, I still think the possibility of some kind of ancient democracy.
Though the social development stage is different from that of democratic city-states of ancient Greece, there's no reason to exclude the possibility of democracy system in different stages of human history.

Democracy is not the doomed destiny or more "advanced" social system.  It's only a choice.  It may occur, and it may well be destoyed.

I don't think the Japanese threw their culture away. In fact, there are even more Chinese culture preserved in Japan and S. Korea than in the despotic mainland China!  There are more Chinese traditional culture preserved in Taiwan than in mainland China, yet Taiwan can be more liberal a society than China.  Can you explain these? :)

When liberal democracy emerged in western Europe, it's not "mainstream" either.  The mainstream political system of western Europe was then Feudalism and despotism.  Yet, the non-mainstream thoughts could grow to be mainstream.

ygao 创派立教

Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 1,415

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Quote:

Originally Posted by lihlii 1. The European democracy (rule of the majority) was invented not in the "west", but in Greece. But later Greece turned into a despotic state for a long time.

It was because of the Byzantium Empire. An empire is inherently against democracy and innovation.
For the same reason, the hope of democracy was extinguished in China since Qin united China in 221 BC.
Western Europe was saved from this fate due to the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lihlii 2. Modern democracy (liberal constitutional democracy) was invented in the west (the netherlands and britain), but why don't you call it dutch democracy or british democracy but "western" democracy? If it's because the western countries accepted such theory, then why can't Chinese accept such theory and develop Chinese democracy?

Due to the cultural similarity between many western countries, British and Dutch democracy could be much more easily accepted.
The Chinese culture now is already anti-democractic. So are the Greek and Italian cultures now.
To embrace freedom and real democracy, it is necessary for those countries to get rid of a great part of their culture.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lihlii 3. Computers were invented by the European and American, but why don't you call them western computers?

Because there is no such a thing as eastern computers. Also, unlike the case of democracy, there are no such stupid people trying to invent eastern computers. If such people did exist, I would indeed call computers as western computers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lihlii 4. There are enough people-based political theories in Chinese classics, which can be easily accepted by Chinese people and migrate into even better liberal democratic system of theory. Why should not Chinese make their own liberal theory? Why should you always limit democratic theory in "western" or the classical boundary? The "western" people developed the Greek democracy and formed the modern liberal democracy. It was not there before people tried to study and modify the original theories.

Those were never the mainstream.
Another question for your quesion: why should Chinese not invent their own computers based on there YinYangWuXing theory?
Even if they could, it would be stupid because it's simply so inefficient. If I think something good, I would just take it and maybe later try to improve it instead of trying to re-invent it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lihlii 6. 你认为日本是西方还是东方呢？日本的制度是西方的制度还是东方的制度呢？

The Japanese were and are much cleverer than the Chinese, because they decided to take the western system instead of trying what you are now doing.
Now Japan is a western country.