> >I don't see the point of not acknowledging some progress.
> >
> >Doug
>
> Hooray for garlic, then. But basically, no, I don't see the point of
> acknowledging progress considering the scale of what still needs to be
done
> and all of the backsliding of the past three decades.
I raised the issue of civilisation not for the purpose of some empirically verifiable hypothesis about "progress". In fact I prefer "progress" as a descriptor insofar as it can be applied to the development of nuclear weapons as easily as it can to the increase in the variety of food available at Doug's grocer over the years. And Doug is right bread has gotten better over the years.
But the question of civilisation is far too loaded of a term and is almost always deployed by those at the centre of empire to rank those in the periphery. And I might add that much of the war on terror has been cast in civilisational terms. If the pictures and stories coming out of Iraq have any impact I hope it will be simply to muddy the civilisational waters. My fear is that such tales of torture will be about as effective as glass balls thrown in stone houses.
Travis