After the Great Voyage, the world began to be truly connected, which is "globalization". In the process, several world empires rose in the West, such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which dominated the world order and continues to this day.
Since the West dominates the world and the West shouts all kinds of slogans for the sake of all mankind, the West should make the world better and more peaceful! But the facts we all know are that in the years since the rise of the West, the world has not become better, but has become more cruel.
As for whether human beings are good or not under the Western-dominated world order in the past 500 years, Africans, American Indians, Australian Maori, Indians, Chinese, etc. can all give answers.
The question is: Since the United States and other Western countries dominate the world, why can't they govern the world well? In fact, the reason is that there are serious defects in Western civilization, such as the following four points, which are just too deeply hidden, and if we understand the reasons for this, we can better understand why it is better to say that China is a strong world!
First, the hierarchy of Western civilization
In 1803, the British scholar Adams, in his article "Introduction to the History and Politics of General Geography", divided the countries and nations at that time into three levels, namely, "barbarian nations", "ignorant or semi-barbaric nations", and "civilized nations". Among them, Western countries are the highest civilization, and non-Western countries are only semi-civilizations.
In fact, such a self-absorbed division is not a big problem, and China also has a division of Huaxia, ripe, and raw. However, the problem is that China is educating the people who are familiar with the fan, and the other side does not listen to them, but as long as they do not harass China, in fact, China will not fight, kill, and kill, while the West wantonly enslaves and even deprives barbarians or semi-barbarians of their lives in the name of "civilization"! So, if a strong military can enslave others at will, force others to be slaves, and even wantonly slaughter others, is military strength equivalent to "civilization"?
What's more, if we compare the Western hierarchy of civilization with the caste system in India, we will find that the two are actually the same, but with a different name. The West professes itself the "highest level of civilization" and then can treat other non-Western peoples with impunity, just as the upper castes can arbitrarily enslave the lower castes.
Therefore, the world dominated by the West is actually a world under the caste system, but the name is not called "caste system", but the more pleasant "civilization hierarchy". In order to maintain the prosperity of the West in a world under such an order, how can non-Western nations not be chaotic and have a good life?
Second, Western religious exclusivity
Christianity, as a Western faith, is a "monotheistic religion" and is very exclusive of other faiths. What's more, this belief is deeply ingrained in the genes of the West.
Before the Great Voyage, the West only believed in Europe, and had little influence on other peoples, at most engaged in the Crucifixion for the purpose of burning, killing and looting. However, when the West dominates the world, it still calls people of other faiths "infidels", and even uses "whether or not they believe in Christianity" as the criterion of "so-called civilization".
Historically, because of Western missionary reasons, countless killings and deaths have been committed in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Nowadays, many scholars ridicule the Boxers, but what they don't know or deliberately don't know is that one of the important reasons why the Boxers rose up was that Western missionaries committed countless crimes in China, forcing the common people to rebel against Western missionaries.
The exclusivity of Western religion combined with the West's forced conversion of others can only bring about contradictions and conflicts, and even the most basic principle of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is not understood. Therefore, countries with religious beliefs are really not suitable to dominate the world, because they cannot achieve complete religious freedom, and only when a secular country like China leads the world can it truly give religious freedom to all countries and tolerate all kinds of religious beliefs.
Third, the West does not have a view of right and wrong
China is an agricultural civilization, we must be honest and industrious, and we must have an order of right and wrong, good and evil, otherwise we will be hungry, and we will not be able to solve the problem by cheating. The West is a commercial civilization, and making money is the first goal, and sometimes you can make a lot of money. It can be seen that under the system of Western civilization, it is impossible to produce a sense of morality and right and wrong.
That's why the United States can say such blatant words as "you're not on the table, you're on someone else's menu," and there is no sense of right and wrong at all. In addition, many people believe that "there are no eternal friends between countries, only eternal interests", in fact, there is no concept of right and wrong, moral values can only say such things in the Western context, and it is impossible to say in the context of Chinese culture. What's more, the colonial plunder and massacre are still at ease today.
After making it clear that the West has no view of right and wrong, only a view of interests, and then looking at the many words and deeds of the West, we may have a better understanding, especially in the Middle East in October last year, the behavior of a certain little bully has no moral rights and wrongs at all, but it is basically recognized by the West, which can be described as an embarrassment and collusion. Is there any fairness to be in the West, which dominates the world so much?
I remember Qian Xuesen said, which roughly means: if science and technology are backward, you can catch up in a few decades, but if the atmosphere is bad, it will be difficult for several generations to recover. Therefore, it is easy to catch up with the material science and technology, but it is difficult to change the spiritual atmosphere! The West has not formed a concept of right and wrong for thousands of years, and it is estimated that it will not be able to change it in a short period of time in the future.
Fourth, the West emphasizes antagonism
Since ancient times, China's philosophy has emphasized "opposition and unity", that is, acknowledging the differences between different civilizations, but being able to coexist peacefully with different civilizations is actually "harmony without difference". Scholar Su Bingqi pointed out that the six major cultural regions in prehistoric times, the diversity of the starry sky eventually moved towards oneness, forming the Chinese civilization! If only the opposition and conquest are emphasized, then the six major regions will certainly not be able to complete the integration and unification, and the Chinese civilization will not be formed.
However, Western civilization is different, Europe is still full of countries, at least from the current point of view, there is no real possibility of unification, there are many problems behind it, one of which is because Europe emphasizes antagonism and differences. The origins of the two world wars were both in Europe, and it was not without deep-seated cultural factors.
This is true within Europe and the United States, and it is even more antagonistic to other civilizations and countries externally. When Zheng He went to the West, he was able to tolerate many weak civilizations, but in the past few hundred years, how could Europe tolerate other civilizations and countries? What was left behind was burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil, and hating that all other civilizations could not be destroyed. Huntington's (above) The Clash of Civilizations, which argues that a clash of civilizations is inevitable, is not a reflection of Western civilization's emphasis on antagonism?
Under the emphasis on opposites, conflicts and wars will inevitably break out, and the past history and the wars that are breaking out now have given the answer. Under the guidance of this kind of thinking in the West, there can be no peace in the world and no good times. Therefore, if we want to make the world peaceful in the future, we must have a civilization with a strong and profound culture of tolerance to lead the world.
What is terrible is that under the West's mentality of only emphasizing antagonism, will an even more brutal war break out in the future? After all, we have now entered the era of nuclear weapons!
Aftermath
The above four points are all defects of Western civilization, and under the dominance of this defective civilization, the world cannot be peaceful and beautiful. (The portrait of Confucius in the picture above, seeing the harm of the defects of Western civilization, may better understand the preciousness of Confucius's benevolence and righteousness)
Unlike Western civilization, although the Chinese civilization is not perfect, it not only does not have the above defects, but also has a strong sense of inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and the concept of right and wrong, good and evil, which is undoubtedly a blessing for a weak civilization and a country.
Therefore, the stronger China is, the more it will be able to protect the weak, and if China is strong enough to dominate the world order, then under the guidance of Chinese culture, the world will be truly fair, just, and more peaceful.
From Liang Qichao and Russell in the early 20th century, to Toynbee in the middle of the century, and then to many Nobel laureates, countless top scholars at home and abroad have affirmed that only Chinese culture can save the future. Therefore, Chinese should have confidence in Chinese culture, and it is time to say goodbye to the West!