The West’s Long Tradition of Exalting Non-Western Cultures
“In consequence there is in Burma no such growing gulf between rich and poor, with all its resultant misery and discontent, as there is in England and America.”
That’s certainly true. There, all are equally poor – with the possible exception of Than Shwe and his colleagues.
“… to bring him to see life through Oriental eyes, though ever so dimply, is an achievement which fully justifies a certain amount of exaggeration.”
Edith Hamilton’s “The Greek Way” is a good touchstone here. In the first few pages, she touches on the difference between West (Greece) and East (India, China, &c). Stripped to the barest essentials, she says that where life was intolerable (nasty, brutish, and short), Eastern philosophy turned away from the world – considered reality just an illusion. In such a system, there’s not much point in trying to “figure it out” – either the natural world or the “meaning of life”. There’s no point. So in Buddhism, for instance, life is suffering, and the ultimate end is nirvava – nothingness.
To Edmonds’ early point about wealth and happiness, most people realize that the two aren’t synonymous, that wealth doesn’t bring happiness, but the old saw is still true – that wealth can dispel a lot of misery.
It’s not what you have (or don’t have), it’s what you do with it.
I think Edmonds might agree with you, though, that of all the world’s cultures, the West has been the group more continually engaged in trying to understand the others.
