I certainly do. We have lost the concept of family and community. I think you might want to spend some time in other countries before you come to judge.
This is a very long winded discussion wich in essence is Individualism against Collectivism. There are points to be made for both side. But if you want to go more towards the old concepts of family and community you are going to lose part of the indvidualism we have today. I'd suggest a side topic about this discussion in the Philosophy section due to its lenght and complexity .
Sorry how exactly am I judging here? If anything I am doing the opposite and not judging the superiority or inferiority of our culture. I'm only saying that a few examples of bad elements of British culture does not point to a total collapse of anything good within it.
Back to the original topic... here's Wilders explaining his argument/point of view. Whether you agree he is certainly quite reasonable and does make some valid points:
YouTube - Geert Wilders Speaks: Anti-Koran Film "Fitna" (Part 1 of 2)
ugh he started so well. It is a growing number of people being moved to extremism apparently. But "retarded islamic culture"? If he means our culture (as in europe and US) is better in terms of quality of life and advancement than countries that are ismlamic like the middle east, then i 'spose he could get away with it. But sadly i dont think thats what he means. If the valid points he made wern't surrounded by spack comments I might be more interested
I think it's very dangerus to say that a culture,whatever culture is superior.
Orientals,peaple from, let's say China or Japan will dissagree most stronly with you.
To me,cultures are different,and i love it that way,as this world would be extremely boring if all cultures where thesame.
But i don't believe any culture is superior to another.
Whe should be speaking of Arab culture,not Islam culture.
Islam is a religion,that's not thesame as a culture.
If you think our culture is superior,i can advise you to travel,find out for yourselvs.
Go to Spain,to a city called Grenada,and see the magnificent artworks created by the Moors,a perfect example of Arab culture.
That's only one example,but there are many more all over this world.
Whe should stop seeing culture as a product of religion,as the two can very easy have different meanings,and we give far to mutsh credit to a fanatical minority,instaid of concentraiting on a majority who just want to live thair lives.
Technically speaking its pretty much impossible to call another culture inferior not only is there no "set" rules for a culture making it impossible to judge one. Also it would make you a hypocryt since they could be saying the same about your culture. However as a human being i do see cultures that dont respect human rights and a couple of other things as inferior to our own (average western culture) even though i'l be the last to say that ours is perfect. Its far better then some others imo.
I'm talking about being superior relative to another culture, not some non-existent 'meta-culture' by which all cultures are judged. In virtually all cases of differences "western culture" is superior for society overall.
If we want a functioning society where people are happy and productive then there is necessarily some behaviours and principles which are objectively more likely to result in such a society. For instance free speech, or the ability to believe in what ever religion you want (or none) and the ability to change religion will be objectively superior at achieving this goal than curtailing free speech or limiting religious freedom.
The problem is some cultures are not about what is important to humanity and the planet but about pleasing god. But since no one can know if a god exists, much less what 'he' wants, theists therefore get to determine what god wants as if that really is what god wants, and in that sense, it would be the theological worldview that is relativistic and arbitrary: it wouldn't be adhering to some ultimate absolute rule determined by god as is typically claimed, rather it would adhere to arbitrary rules created by man pretending to be speaking about the desires of god.
This is the most important post on the thread so far. So many people lose sight of this or are frightened of it and you sum it up so well in a few short paragraphs. Than you sir.