Westerners are WEIRD

Post Reply New Topic

http://www.nationalpost.com/Westerners+ ... story.html

Interesting article, but of course different cultures will have different opinions and mindsets. It doesn't mean we are weird, or as the one person in the article put it, wrong.

Which is weirder: denying money to someone who offers you next to nothing for it, or proclaiming your weirdness and saying you're stupid for doing it?

Great article.

So when exactly was Peru moved out of the Western hemisphere?

Why is it being portrayed as "Western World/Everyone else?"

From the perspective of the Peruvian Machiguenga, settlers from Europe and Africa are Easterners. Seems the press in North America still hasn't learned to overcome ancient European biases.

I think that in this case (as it often is) western is less a geographical area or direction and more of a socio-cultural-economic way of being.

Of course, the writers of the piece are probably WEIRD too, so there's still bias.

I think what I like about this, is that it suggests that westerners are an anomaly... most of the world's population are living very different lives to us. I think it's easy for us WEIRDs to think that our lives and lifestyles are kind of 'normal'. As westerners, we are privileged(?) to be living in the midst of some kind of huge (bizarre?) experiment. It's like we're living in a bubble, or a Phil K. Dick novel.

So, defining oneself by ones own traits, rather than the way others see you, is weird now? Seems that "westerners" have an intrinsic sense of worth, then, whereas the primitives (I'm being deliberately insulting, BTW) and savages beyond have a utilitarian belief.

I must point out, we wouldn't have a global, well developed planet if it wasn't for us Europeans, with our "weird" beliefs.

Actually I would put it down more to convenience of geography and disposition of natural resources. But thats for another topic.

Overall, what makes Westerners any weirder than other cultures? Yet more West-bashing by traitors that have sold off their own culture.

That "bubble" is exactly my point. "Western" press is actually only considered "Western" due to Western European ancestries for the most part. The whole concept of "The Western World" stems from that. Even in this day and age they still refer to North and South Americans with West European routes as "Westerners." The fact that indigenous Peruvians are not considered Westerners simply proves my point. In reality, they are more entitled to the term than people in the West with West European roots.

As far as the weird thing goes, as the article points out, we all tend to like to think we are "weird" or special. Even Aspies! Hardly anyone really wants to be a true virtual island.

I think some of y'all missed the point. There's no bashing here. It's basically saying that using 'western' people as the metric by which we judge all people is deluded.

Well, I can't argue with that - especially since somewhere like Japan is probably even more developed than Western cultures!

It's all a matter of opinion. There are some westeners who think that easterners are just as weird.

The West (so-called) corresponds roughly to Christendom, with the exception of Russia which went on the path of the Orthodox Church. It is not a perfect correspondence. For example, South America is different from Europe and North America because the Protestant Reformation was not part of the political origins of the current nations of South America. Duly note the some South American nations are quite Europeans, particularly Argentina which had a large European influence when it became a sovereign nation.

ruveyn

Would you prefer a developed planet over an intact planet? Yes, we are developed, but at what price? I always wonder if it was worth it.

The planet has been intact for 4.25 billion years.

ruveyn