A Barrage of False Ideas
Ordinarily I do not repeat my private conversations after a social gathering. Moreover, most of the time the talk is trifling, banal, or silly. But recently, I have noticed a change: a consensus has emerged on important issues that is thoroughly misguided but still deserving of analysis. Let me cite the examples.
I continually hear that “all religions are the same.” This is a position fostered by atheists and radical secularists since any other stance would undermine their basic premise. It should be apparent, however, that different faiths make different claims about truth, morality, and fealty. While Judaism and Christianity have a similar core and antecedents, they are quite different from Islam, where text and teachings are often in direct opposition to the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Emerging from this position on religion is another false claim: “We all worship the same God.” This position is narrowly provincial. There are thousands of gods worshipped by hundreds of religions and sects, each manifestly different with idiosyncratic demands. The very worship of gods takes different forms, in different communities, for different people.
Since we “all worship the same God” and God is good, it stands to reason that His children will be good as well. But experience indicates that not all people are good. The gnostic idea that we are innocent and perfectible but corrupted by institutions overlooks the obvious point of who created the institutions. Moreover, if one accepts the idea of original sin, perfectibility is a chimera borne of well wishing that overlooks empirical evidence.
Similarly, there is the widely held belief that “extremism is bad and moderation is the solution.” Clearly Aristotle warned against extremism. But moderation can be as destructive as extremism when there is an unwillingness to defend with passion that which is right. Extremism in the name of liberty is not a vice, to paraphrase Barry Goldwater. Ideas that are good and true deserve vigorous support and the best response to bad ideas is rarely moderation.
Coruscating through the bloodstream of the West is the wrongheaded view that “Western civilization should feel guilty” for its policies. President Obama has engaged in an apology tour pointing out to enemies and friends that policy antecedents created so many of the globe’s problems. This attempt at soul searching and purging of guilty feelings is both irrational and unhelpful. Of course some policies in our past were wrong. Western civilization is imperfect. But this position overlooks extraordinary accomplishments, political freedom and technical achievements. As I see it, this reliance on guilt is ostensibly a silencing strategy, a way to sabotage critical analysis.
Bravo, Dr. London. Shall we add to the ash-heap of refuted shibboleths all statements that begin with “Everybody knows” — ?
None of the refutations provided above would cause great fatigue to a decently educated eighth-grader. Yet we hear them so seldom that one cannot help but suspect censorship of some kind. Taboos at work, perhaps?
“all religions are the same.” This is a position fostered by atheists –
I willing to concede ‘some atheists’ or even ‘many atheists’ but not all are so ignorant – or so fostering.
There is an enormous difference between a jain and a catholic, a quaker and and a muslim, even a buddist and a hindu.
They may have things in common (no proof) and they may be diametrically opposed, but when an atheist says they are ‘all the same’ either she means that they are all based on belief rather than knowledge, or that she is ignorant.
“I continually hear that “all religions are the same.”
Funny, I hear the same thing too. I think what a lot of this all falls under is that horrible junk called “multiculturalism,” that false idea that all cultures, and in turn all religions, are the same. Well, they simply are not. Some cultures are A LOT better than others. Much of Islam follows Sharia law, where stonings and treating women like property is allowed. We also don’t even want to talk about what Sharia law says about gays and Jews. Much of this behavior, if done in a Christian country, would be illegal and would land you in jail. But it’s totally legal in those Muslim countries that follow Sharia law, as in Saudi Arabia. We have headhunters in New Guinea, yet I don’t think we really want to be like them, either. So “multiculturalism” is a lie and the people who promote it are liars as well. Fortunately, even some of the politicians in Germany and Britain are starting to come to the same conclusion. It’s about time.
Of all the people he murdered, did Moo-ham’n-eggs ever bring any of them back from the dead? If all religions are the same, why doesn’t everyone agree that “It’s just an undifferentiated tissue mass”…? “IHS”
Excellent and necessary correction to a fashionable delusion!
I’ve been pointing out this delusion for years, often noting that there is some relationship between the life of a religion’s founder and their religion. So Moses leaves the royal palace and proclaims one law for all – elite and poor – and leads a successful slave revolt. Buddha leaves a royal palace, abandons power, and decides to walk in forests in a simple robe trying to reduce human suffering. Jesus travels with a small entourage preaching love and tolerance, and prays for his torturers. Yet Muhammad seeks absolute earthly power, spreads his faith with a “flaming sword of Allah”, and personally oversees the execution of over 700 infidels who refuse to acknowledge him as the last and greatest prophet.
May we compare and contrast?
My other favorite is “I don’t believe in organized religion.” As if organization automatically makes a religious belief false. Whenever I hear any of the above I either laugh and try to treat it as a joke, because nobody is really ignorant enough to say such a silly thing, or hit hard at the ignorance such silliness betrays.
It’s not hard to make such speakers feel like the fools they are. Simply ask them for evidence. Have they read every holy book of every religion? Then who has that they trust well enough to believe something that requires such massive study? Usually they trot out something about the Crusades, which is easily swept aside, as the Crusades were not attacks, but counterattacks. Not QUITE the same thing. And hardly Christian; a pack of recently Christianized barbarians, who still had many of their pagan beliefs intact, are not exactly the best exemplars of Christ’s teachings. The fact that there were Buddhist revolts in Japan doesn’t mean that all Buddhists are hypocrites regarding non-violence. This argument is also easy to turn around. If all Christians are permanently guilty for the Crusades and the Inquisition, then all Romanticists are permanently guilty for WWI/WWII, the Communist & Nazi mass murders, etc. I’ll take that trade, even though it’s nonsense in both cases. We are only guilty for our own crimes/sins. There’s no collective guilt; there’s no collective anything. Each of us is an individual, and no amount of socialist preaching and murdering will ever change that absolute fact.
The assertion that “all religions are the same” is prima facie evidence that the asserter is either profoundly ignorant, dishonest, or non compos mentis.
All “progressives”, and most who have been “educated” in modern government schools, fall into one or more of these three categories.
The war isn’t just about terrorism, or economics, or social policy.
The war encompasses every aspect of life…families, marriage, education, entertainment, work, attitudes, even thought.
They don’t rest a second. Somewhere, sometime, there are thousands of them dreaming up some new assault on traditional values, some new undermining of a respected institution, some new redefinition of the language, some new interpretation of the thinking that has made the world what it is today. Nothing is beyond them.
Attacks on God, Christianity, the Judeo-Christion ethic…those are like, duuuhhh. They are so obvious even a simpleton man like Bill O’Reilly can see those. The ones I worry about are much more insidious. The concept that self-esteem is more important than knowledge and hard work; the exploding number of “rights”; the idea that the world is so different now that values of the past couldn’t possible appy; the idea that we shouldn’t defend ourselves because we have been imperialists in the past; the new subservience of science to politics; and on and on.
They never rest.
You’re completely right about the issue of the Christian violence and Islamic violence, but you forgot to mention the really salient factor. Violence based on Christianity happened hundreds of years ago, and since that time Christianity as a whole has moved past that violent stage. Some will also say that Judaism has violent tendencies based on some Old Testament passages, but again that happened many centuries ago; Judaism also has moved past that. When was the last time you heard about Israelis stoning homosexuals and adulterous women? Unfortunately, in every Islamic country religious violence is perfectly normal, and is fully embraced by much of the leadership. If the Islamic world wants to come out of the dark age it currently inhabits, it is going to have to grow up and start being more like Christianity and Judaism, and ignore the violent tendencies inherent in their relifion.
“All religions are the same”, in my opinion, is very similar to “well, our beliefs about God are perhaps a little different, but thats okay, since we are both sincere in our beliefs, so all will be fine”.
These two viewpoints are examples of “it IS so, because I SAY it is so”. In my opinion, those from whom I hear these types of comments are suffering from the all-consuming syndrome of “I am the center of the universe and I get to decide what is right or wrong”. And virtually everyone I’ve ever known (and I’m including myself) defaults to that mindset.
And even though I’m sick of listening to self-centered bloviating, especially from myself, I find it hard to say “where is the real truth and what do I have to do to get it?” Lord, have mercy…….
In other words, they are manifestations of The Lie, “Ye shall be as gods.” The Lie is very seductive, and it disguises itself in many forms, most of which seem good to people who haven’t considered the full ramifications, but the end of it is death.
TO: All
RE: Heh
Try THIS!!!!
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson]
Thank you, Mr. London, as I have been compelled to work on a book by a talented young writer who has swallowed every morsel of idiocy on offer from the modern secular world, an idiocy that has guaranteed unhappiness to millions now for many years. You were the antidote to the poison I was administered today.
Western “Civilization” was ,and is, a series of virulent political/religious /statist snares and a delusions enforced through bureaucratized and industrialzed terror.Ever since the collapse of classical Greek civilization, the West has proceeded from one psychotic and destructive fanaticism to the next,leaving behind hecatombs,until the killing culminated in the 20th century with 2 horrific world wars,and the Nazi and Communist holocausts.Let’s not forget the prototypical massacres unleashed by Napoleonic megalomania, nationalisn,and religion.The West hasadopted the multicultural,PC,welfare state that promises to continue the cycle of destruction by other means (diminishing birthrate, national bankruptcy,greed, cultural nihilism,vulgarity and welfare dependency.GOOD RIDDANCE I say, let’s enjoy the collapse of the West, contribute to it, and dance on it’s grave.
Wow, deguello. You are making the same mistake this article is pointing out. Western Civilization… Bad!
As compared to what? Islam? What cultural or technological advances have they ever produced? Was Japan nationalistic before or after we got there? Has not China always been hegemonic? And forget Africa.
Western Civilization has dragged mankind out of the muck, a muck to which many are determined to return us. Do we not: live long lives compared to our ancestors? Enjoy technological wonders? Have resplendent artistic things at which to marvel? Is not our widespread literacy truly a blessing? We have learned to fly, to soar with the eagles and beyond. We have gone to the Moon.
We have brought light to darkness, healed the sick, fed the hungry, and given hope where there was none. Nobility, Chivalry, Egalitarianism, and Mercy are strictly Western concepts. I do not apologize for the culture which produced these concepts and drew us from the savagery of our baser natures.
If one can blame this cultural marvel of Western Civilization for the actions of those who seek its destruction, you are truly a swine before whom pearls have been cast. The fact that you see the failings is evidence of the great effects of this Civilization. You share these greater values, these nobilities, and see where people fall short. You are not even aware that, were it not for this Civilization, you would not have the values in place to recognize the failings.
Do you honestly think the entire world shares these same values? Do they all treat women as equal to men? Do they all feel outrage at corruption, or do they accept it with a shrug, and indulge in it themselves whenever possible? Do they all believe in merit, or do they prefer a tribal system? Do they believe in Justice, or do they have kangaroo courts? Do they believe in Liberty, or do people get locked away forever at someone’s whim?
The world is a savage place, except where Western concepts have been introduced, and yet, you would see it buried and “dance on its grave”. deguello, I normally favor your posts, but in this, you spit in the very eye of the Civilization which gave you such enormous blessings.
Hypocrite, are you giving up the internet, in-door plumbing, electricity, or modern medicine? I prefer the vulgarity of enjoying the vernacular while being grateful for the benefits of Western Civilization.
London ignores fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity. We do NOT worship the same God; the Jewish God is not triune and absolutely does not include Jesus or the Holy Spirit in the Godhead in any way, shape, form, or homoousian bafflegab. Jesus is NOT the Jewish messiah – he is the source of 2000 years of persecution. Judaism does NOT believe in original sin, instead it believes that we all have the choice to sin or not sin. Judaism does NOT believe in salvation on the basis of belief, it believes in salvation according to God’s judgment upon what one does. Judaism does NOT believe in a monarchial Episcopate as do the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, rather rabbis are employees of their congragations and not even Hasidic rebbes don’t quite aspire to monarchianism. Judaism does NOT believe in faith as acceptance of doctrine even though denial of some fundamental doctrines would get one excluded from the community – there are no Ecumenical Creeds, Confessions of Faith, or Catechisms in Judaism.
London passes over the continuous butchery Western Civilisation has perpetrated or allowed to be perpetrated upon Jews but you can spare us some insincere Jimmy Carterian repentance.
anon – I’m going to have disagree with you in some respects. Yes, Christianity is different Judaism insofar as Judaism is a religion of deed, not creed, while Christianity is a religion of creed, not deed. Much else of what you said is correct, but I think that is more of an accident of history than anything else. Go back to the time before the Destruction of the Second Temple and you will find much of what you said exists in Christianity in at least nascent form in Judaism at that time. The Destruction and the Bar-Khockbah rebellion weakened the political structure to such an extent than an alternative model had to be found, which is the one we have today.
There are two aspects where I will beg to differ with you. The first is in the concept of God that Jews and Christians have. I have come to appreciate the fact that Christians do not view their triune God as being non-monotheistic. The components are simply different aspects of God (hence tri-une). I take it you are Jewish, and as a Jew, consider those different aspect of God as being His manifestations. The same thing exists in Judaism – we have the Ru’ach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit = Holy Ghost), the Shekhinah, Rachamim, and so forth. In Judaism, though, we are indifferent to what those manifestations mean (except in a very general sense) and that is because of our interest in doing the deed. In Christianity, by contrast, the manifestations come to the fore because of its interest in creed. Bottom line is that while the two religions have gone their separate ways, as you aptly point out, I think that God is the same.
The other place I want to disagree with you is in the area of morality. Christianity started out as Jewish (messianic) sect. In that regard it continued the morality of Judaism, and in fact the Catholic Church has continued to enforce the Halakhah of Shammai in matters of divorce. Obviously, things changed in Christianity over time, but I think there is still a strong Jewish influence in Christianity’s approach to morality.
Sorry but Anon is right. In fact Judaism and Islam are much closer than to Christianity. The Elohim of Israel has more or less nothing to do with the God of the Christians who is a sort of mixture of paganism and misundertood Judaism. The differences are even more profound than what Anon said and are not accidents of history but the result of the non_jewish influences in Christianity since its beginning.
One that gets me is: “They’re always saying that things are getting worse!”
Yes, and some things ARE getting worse. When it gets worse, you adjust to it and say, “It’s not that bad.” Back in 1800s’ London there was a spate of rotten plays for the lower classes; plays celebrating thieves and highwaymen as heroes. It was actually getting bad as kids skipped school and snuck into the theatres, later emulating in the streets what they saw on stage. (Read “The Popular Admiration of Thieves” in Charles MacKay’s “Extraordinary Popular Delusions & The Madness Of Crowds.”) Society managed to clean up and get on the right track. Now we’re headed down that road again with thugs, gangsters and, yes, even vampires as the heroes. It IS bad. It IS a bad road to travel. But try and tell someone and you get “They always say that things are getting bad!”
Or look at a porn magazine from 1967. Pretty tame by today’s standards. I love it when people see an old porno mag and laugh, “Peouple used to get upset about THIS? It’s nothing!” Well, idiot. The fact that you’re laughing about it proves that the prudes and moralists were right! It led to exactly what they said it would lead to and you’re desensitized!
When the prudes and moralists now say that legalized pedophilia’s just down the road, I believe it.
I can never understand how otherwise educated people can say that all religions are the same. The only answer I can come up with is that they have no use for any religion and therefore dismiss them all out of hand without any investigation into what they stand for.
Maybe we should look at the stated purposes of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
With Judaism, as I understand it, God chose the Hebrews as the people to whom he would reveal himself, and through them, reveal himself to mankind.
In Christianity, Jesus was to be the fulfillment of The Law, but it is written that his own would not accept him. Then, Paul took the message to the Gentiles thus giving all mankind the opportunity to be part of the covenant. Jesus and Paul were both Jews and always recognized the special relationship between God and the Jews.
Then came Mohamed who proclaimed himself above all previous prophets, not for the purpose of bringing mankind closer to God, but so he could indulge his thirst for blood, savagery and sexual perversion.
Judaism and its offspring Christianity exist for the purpose of bridging the gap between God and Man. Islam exists for the purpose of returning mankind to savagery and undoing everything the Jews and Christians stand for. How could they all possibly be the same?
When it comes to Western civilization and guilt, the main thing Western Civilization needs to feel guilty about is that it didn’t spread Western influence more widely when it had the chance.
“Another silencing ploy is to suggest that any external criticism must be countered by an internal criticism as well, e.g., the Koran promotes violent behavior but then Christianity promoted the Crusades.”
Considering that Islam had spent almost three centuries before the First Crusade was launched;
1. Conquering Christian kingdoms across North Africa;
2. Invading Spain and France, and
3. Enslaving or just slaughtering Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land they were actually being paid to protect (by the Catholic Church)
that belief of the “enlightened elite’” is about as asinine as, oh I don’t know, claiming Poland started World War Two.
As Orwell said, there are some ideas that are so stupid that only a very intelligent person can believe in them.
clear ether
eon
“I continually hear that “all religions are the same.” This is a position fostered by atheists and radical secularists since any other stance would undermine their basic premise.”
This is a sign of a crippled mind. As an Objectivist, I probably have less in common with the majority people whos ideology is atheistic than Herbert London has with followers of Osama Bin Laden. But he refuses to investigate atheists with the precision necessary to make that distinction, and just identifies every non-believer as an “atheist”. That would be identical to identifying both Christians and Wahabist as just “theists”, something that he’s so disturbed by (deservedly so) that it’s these opening sentences to his essay. Considering that’s his first two sentences, there’s no need to read a third.
It is always amusing to read the rants that follow an article such as this.
Deguello uses it as a springboard to condemn western civilization for every evil, real or imagined. On what basis? Well, I suppose because western thought–if one can characterize myriad strains as an entity– is dominant.. Deguello either refuses to notice, or perhaps just disapproves, that virtually every advance in personal freedom, and governance over the past several centuries has come from the West. If he is going to criticize the struggles and missteps along the way, he should at least acknowledge that competing systems have either faded into virtual irrelevance, or seem to be stuck in the 8th century.
Ok, Anon. I think we all realize that Judaism and Christianity are different. Actually, I think we realized it before your rant. So, did the good Professor. Most Thinkers do sort of lump the Judeo-Christian heritage as deriving from the same roots; i.e. The Old Testament. But, thank you for pointing out that there was a fairly significant divergence–in case anyone missed that.
This is very funny! What the author doesn’t seem to realize is that when Americans use that cliche, “All religions are the same,” what they’re trying to say, in a tactful, oblique manner, is roughly: “Will you please stop ranting at us about the evils of Islam? You’re scaring my kids and you’ve already made the dog slink out the back door in terror!”
Come to think of it, I suppose Mr. London’s evident resentment of the cliche suggests that he retains just enough vestigial social sense to realize he’s being indirectly asked to tone it down a bit–a demand which ranters hate above all others.
Truth can be scary, scarier than we want to admit, but ignoring it can get you killed.
“All religions are the same” isn’t an outright lie, it’s a polite fiction.
It allows members of a missionary religion (such as Christianity) to coexist with practitioners and advocates of other religions which their own creed’s formal doctrine declare to be false and to lead to eternal damnation.
But it’s obviously untrue. Hindu polytheism != Chinese polytheism != Buddhist non-theism != Catholic Christian monotheism != Shinto polytheism != Islamic monotheism != Orthodox Jewish monotheism != Reform Jewish monotheism != Baptist Christian monotheism != Unitarianism != Sikhism != Mormonism.
But we’re alll too polite to say so, or should be.
“While Judaism and Christianity have a similar core and antecedents, they are quite different from Islam”
Er – no. Islam has the same antecedents: it’s actually an offshoot of Christianity, as it recognizes Jesus as a messiah (and Moses as a prophet before him). Kinda like Mormonism – Islam has the Koran, brought to Muhammad in visions, and Mormonism has the Book of Mormon brought to Joseph Smith by a heavenly messenger. Both share the same roots in Christian mythology.
All religions ARE the same. They all offer a formula to follow as the means of achieving eternal life. They only differ on the formula. Christianity is not a religion and it teaches that eternal life is the gift of God that we cannot earn. We must accept it by faith. That is what separates Christianity from all other religions.
Marc Malone:” Western Civilization has dragged mankind out of the muck…”Muck? You mean like the muck at Passchaendale,and Verdun (1&1/2 million brits frenchmen and germans killed for war profiteers and the nationalistic lie?Muck? You mean like western”civilization” making madonna a multimillionaire for promoting public degeneracy ? Muck? You mean like Marxism(another wonderful western cretinism with its hecatombs of victims;Muck? You mean like like sticking a crucifix in urine and calling it art? Western “civ”,as opposed to the exceptional westerner,or western idea is MUCK!
#19:OLDLYER I enjoyed your pollyana ranting;it must be comforting to live in a fantasyland secure from the historical evidence; however, it does not alter the fact that the west is a moribund disgrace not worth fighting for.However, there ARE western ideas and people worth defending. It’s a question of builiding a lifeboat,and throwing every libtard POS and every libtard progressive idea out of it,in order retain something worth defending. Only then will there be a cogent motivation for defending that lifeboat from boarders, Islamic and otherwise;until this happens, I shall keep my powder dry.
Hey Deguello, ever heard of Attila the Hun? Ever heard of Ghengis Khan? Had these guys had modern weaponry there would be even more dead. It’s no surprise that the worst regimes in human history existed outside of the West, and that the worst killings occured in places that adopted just enough Western science and technology to make killing more efficient. Pol Pot? Mao? Even Russia is only quasi-Western.
Oh, and let’s not forget the heads rolling down Mayan pyramids, or the hearts torn from chests by Aztec priests. Native Americans were in an eternal state of war, and killed and tortured with no remorse.
And in the South Seas you just might get EATEN, or your head shrunk and stuck on a pole.
In the Islamic world slavery is still not fully abolished, and they still behead people, stone them, and maintain sexual bondage. There was a recent honor killing where a girl had been kidnapped and raped – and her father beheaded her for “dishonoring the family” by being a victim.
Now THERE is something to emulate!
From your last comment it sounds like your problem is with Liberalism, not Western Civilization. Not all of Westernism comes from the Left.
From that perspective, it is clear the West ain’t so bad.
#26 TIMOTHY BIRDNOW: LIBERALISM IS the West! Finally someone begins to get it!(though only partially).My hatred of the West, does not imply love or admiration for the Mayans,Aztecs Islamists and other examples other examples of homicidal dementia(though I confess to being partial to the plains Indians, especially those who killed Custer).In its drunken, homicidal career through history, some in the West have come up with some worthwhile things,(the US constitution,and declaration of independence, to mention just two),but these are always menaced by others formulated by the intellectualoid sickos,and adopted by the powerful, to justify yet another round of war, exploitation and brutality.I do not intend to defend the West,so Madonna,Eminem, George Soros, and the Ivy league plutocratic elite can continue to thrive by destroying the lives of patriots.The West today is greed, nihilism,the destruction of the family,welfare state slavery,and yes men cubicle jobs. You want to defend that?
#28 BIRDNOW: Your argument that only partially westernized countries are naughty, is historically risible.France is a western country;ever hear of the genocide in the Vendee during the French Revolution? How about the hecatombs of the Napoleonic wars?Were the German’s western when they butchered the Jews, poles, and Russians? How about the Spaniards, who not content with the Inquistion evolved the first modern concentration camps in Cuba,before the Spanish American war? It didn’t work out for them(and their victims), but the English enthusiastically adopted the innovation in South Africa, with great success,and only a few hundred thousand lives lost.God, What those Aztecs could have done had they had benefit of Western “culture” !They could have built guillotines,used a secret police to bring in many more victims, and quadrupled the number of rolling heads! They could have invented a stock market, and speculated on guillotine materials, and made money (the god of the west).They could have invented civil service exams for the role of executioner! The urge to kill, exploit,and destroy is latent in Western man,needing only the empowerment provided by a convenient ideology,to assert itself.NOTE:One of the few noble western ideas,the right to keep and bear arms,has been neutered in Europe, and menaced here by the same globalizing, power hungry degenerates,who want to be sure that their future victims cannot fight back.
Deguello, your hatred of Liberalism is understandable, but Liberalism is a relatively new pathology in the line of what we call Western Civilization. And it’s early incarnation was not objectionable; ideas of natural rights, liberty, etc. were orignally called liberal, though now they are considered conservative. I suspect what you hate is new liberalism aka socialism, that thing born of 19th century philosophes like Rousseau and the nihilism of German philosophy. Rejecting all of Western Civilization makes no sense.
What used to be called Christendom advanced concepts that were alien at the time – the very concepts that we take for granted today. The idea that no man is above the law, that human beings have rights that cannot be taken away, that mercy and forbearance should be our first response, these came out of the Judeo-Christian worldview of the Middle Ages. Were the Middle Ages full of violence, cruelty, and barbarism? Yes, and that was to be expected in an era where violent forces were gathered. Consider the twin threats of Islam in the East and South (and the Moslems had pushed the Christians out of much of the old Eastern Roman Empire and had even invaded France) and the threats from the north (the Vikings). Then there were the Mongols and the Golden Horde sweeping in; they raized whole cities in their path. The Medieval men had to be rough. They were no rougher than their counterparts elsewhere.
Which is my point; they were men, with all the flaws of men everywhere. Your problem, then, is with human sin, not with the institutions of the West. The West gave us all of the rights and priveledges we take for granted here. Slavery didn’t disappear outside of the West first, nor did torture, nor any of the other things we find abhorrent. That we did not always live up to our standards does not change the fact that those standards were set by us.