Innovations and inventions tend to increase population. In China when they developed a new form of rice the farmers were able to grow more food with the same amount of work. Although the increase in supply lowered the price, you had more to sell so you were better off. Because you were better off you had more children and they lived to grow up. Because food is more plentiful, other people eat better and their children live to grow up. Population increases. If you have a warrior/slave culture then nothing happens to increase production and population. Take this line of reasoning and apply it to the yoke and horse collar and hundreds of other inventions that emerged and were shared around the world. China had its classes and its slaves but it was not a warrior culture. You had the mandarins and the scholars who really ran things. The Mongols, a warrior/slave culture, were able to conquer China but within a few generations were overcome by the culture of the Chinese.
North American had none of this. It was based on warrior/slave cultures. You see an extension of this if you look south to the Mexican cultures of the Olmec, Aztec and Maya. No one questions that they were advanced cultures. They discovered the zero, developed an accurate calendar and built huge buildings. They even increased in population, but they were far behind the Europeans in technical skills. Why? Because they were a warrior/slave culture.
These advanced cultures never invented simple farming implements. They did not have shovels or hoes, let alone a plow. Why? Because all the work was done by a peasant class who were little better than slaves. They had plenty of land for their population so when they wore out the soil they would just burn some more jungle and move to a new area.
We know they had the wheel. It appears on children’s toys. Yet they never invented a wheelbarrow or pulley. Why? Because the only ones who would benefit were the working classes. That might give them leisure to plot rebellion. It worked against the interests of the ruling classes. There might have been innovations but they were stomped on at once.
Are all cultures equal? Modern education teaches that silly thought. I had that conversation with a principal once. She definitely thought of me as a troglodyte. In multi-culturalism and diversity thinking all cultures are the same. If that is the case, how did a bunch of farmers drive the noble savage from his hunting grounds? Since I believe that all men are created equal under God, I have to believe that it is superior culture.
homo unius libri
Makes sense!
ReplyDeleteI am old enough to know that just because something makes sense it isn't always right. On the other hand, it is better that a lot of what I hear.
ReplyDeleteGrace and peace.