Well, I thought I had spammed this thread enough already, but since you ask ...


I don't specifically mean "culture expansion", and I'm not sure what that term might mean.

Western culture has been successful and gained influence worldwide for a few centuries. I was born in America, a western culture, so to me this seems like a natural state of affairs. That means my views on what is natural or even good are tainted by my experience.

Given that people in other parts of the world may be born into different cultures, they may have their own views. For example, would not a Chinese person have just as much reason to value their own culture as I do mine? Can either of us honestly say that one is objectively better than the other? The potential for debate is enormous, and IMHO likely not well suited to a web forum.

It seems to me that maybe someone thought my (very) broad use of the term "civilization" was inappropriate. If I may be so bold as to speculate, perhaps in the view of some people, if one culture is "civilized" then other cultures could be said to be "uncivilized". It doesn't sound very fair, or maybe not very nice, but it was not my intention to write in exclusionary terms. Looking at the dictionary definition of "civilization", it is easy to see why many interpretations are possible.

So instead of turning this thread into a million flames about cultural differences, I'd rather just admit that my own views are limited by my experiences. It is true, and it is consistent with my intended meaning in the post which spawned this tangential discussion.

I was just curious about what "success" could mean in culture context. Also I think western culture term is somewhat slightly reductive. There are cultural differences through European countries for example.

But yes, it is off topic

Getting back to the future part of this topic ... I am fond of the depiction of humanity in Star Trek. Presumably, at some point in the future we work all these things out and meld together as one. We don't lose all our differences, and we maintain our histories, but we learn to prioritize the good of the species over all else. What a fantastic concept!