The Difference between Civilization and Savagery
Some of you reading may be aware of The Political Compass test, which asks you many questions to define your political stance. While it is left-leaning in its approach and some of the statements are poorly worded for such a test, all in all, I would recommend completing it.
One statement on the test caught my eye more than any other: “There are no savage and civilised peoples; there are only different cultures.” and you have to respond with one of the following “strongly agree”, “agree”, “disagree” or “strongly disagree”. At first, I was inclined to agree strongly; I mean, I don't consider tribes of the Amazon savage, and yet they certainly cannot be considered “civilised” as one might consider other cultures. But then I considered what does classing culture as civilised even mean in the first place? My response would be that a society possesses a justice system, ethical code and modern infrastructure and economy. Yet all those traits can be met by organisations that few would describe as civilised, such as the Taliban, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Perhaps the mistake is of the statement is assuming there is some mutual exclusivity to savagery and civilization. Nazi Germany was overwhelming civilised, transformed a nation on the brink of collapse into one that would take the combined effort of the three most powerful nations in the world to defeat. Yet, they also used the power of civilisation to standardise murder and industrialize genocide with ruthless efficiency. Only a few years prior, on the other side of the planet, the Japanese, with their advanced military-industrial complex civilisation afforded them, were busying raping Nanking (or Nanjing), an act that optimised the human beast. Yet, within the bounds of the original statement, they get to be classed as civilised, or their actions are given a scapegoat of being culturally different. I would argue that true civility lie’s in the lifestyle of a people that maintain their culture without the admission price of sacrificing one's own humanity.
This article is completely different from my usual style as it is far more ramble and opinion piece than informative. I’m not sure if this article achieves much other than perhaps depressing the reader, but I had spent the last few days indecisively trying to figure out a topic for this article. In the end, I felt this an interesting thought process worthy of publication, even if it may be morally and intellectually redundant that amounts to little more than a shower thought.
Thanks for reading! If this wasn’t to your liking, I have a small catalogue of other articles that might be more suited to your curiosity.
