Ethics class?

Question

I am taking an ethics class, and my teacher asked the class: Do you think that Christian European/Anglo Saxon influence has weakened the world? Also why does it seem like most wars were/are due to Europeans/Anglo Saxon starting or interference? (white Americans, Europeans)


I was surprise that most of the class agreed and do believe this. Most of the people in my class are white.
There was a guy who basically said:

If you think about it America is built on immigration, and those immigrants came into America and bullied an entire race(American Indians), and they colonized other countries, brought slaves over, and colonized South America.
Then generations later we go into other countries and bully them for their goods and land.

I have to say he made a valid point, but I don't think you can label an entire race.

what do you guys think?

Answer 1

what he said is definitely true...BELIEVE it Or NoT!

Answer 2

I'm not a historian, but I would say that your teacher is wrong about Europeans/Anglo Saxons starting most wars. I think that is a problem with human beings. The two "World Wars" were both started by those two groups.

What that guy said is mostly true of America, but also of most Western-European countries - England, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, etc. It's also true of Turkey - the Ottoman Empire - and even lots of Asian Countries e.g. Japan (during WWII) and China (think about Tibet). I'm not that up on Asian history, but I would guess that there are other examples. I think that the colonial era is mostly over. That kind of thing won't be happening at that blatant level any more (or at least very rarely). Some might argue that it still happens but on a more subtle level.

Answer 3

If you are speaking of white Americans taking over other peoples land by bulling other countries. Who's land are we after now? Things are so much more different now then when the immigrants came over here. Also, our forefathers built our country based on freedom and peace and believe in God.
I don't always agree that this country should go to other countries and give them material things when we have people in this country in need. Because some of these countries don't appreciate a thing we do for them. I don't believe your teacher is correct in teaching students that Christian European/Anglos, Americans weakened the world with our influence. The world has gone the other way because of how people get along, how their taught by their parents, pride, greed and lots of immoral things.
One thing that I note is that college professors are teaching the wrong things to young people and they should not be allowed to do it. Same goes for some of the judges decisions. Also, Hollywood movies are for the most part, insane and have no place with all the violence and immoral acts on the screen.They make up their own laws. They are only to interept the laws. We all need to stick together in this country because the way things are going with the terriorist situation, things could go real bad for our country. This really worries me.

Answer 4

I think your teacher is bonkers.

A European society influenced by Judeo-Christian values has produced modern science, great art and literature and more democracy than any other time in world history. And as your teacher should know, the study of Ethics as its own subject is almost exclusively the domain of Europeans: From Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Foot, Kierkegaard, Moore, Aquinas, etc.

I don't suppose it would help to point out that almost all of the armed conficts occuring in the world involve muslims fighting with their neighbors? (If your teacher mentions the Crusades point out the first Crusade was a response to muslims pushing into Southern Europe, forcing conversion at the point of the sword).

Slavery is undoubtedly one of the darkest chapters in American history. But there is nothing about this moral lapse that is uniquely European or American--Africans played a role here too, capturing and selling their fellow Afircans into slavery. And keep in mind that thousands of white Americans fought to free slaves in the Civil War. Indeed slavery continues in parts of Afirca's West Coast and Sudan. (If your teacher suggests that this is a result of America's slave trading 200 years ago, ask him whether he believes it would be ethical for the United States to start a war to free stop this slavery).

I'm not sure what the point about "go[ing] into other countries and bully[ing] them for their goods and land" generations later means. I suppose this is a reference to the "war for oil" in Iraq? If so, why didn't we just line up to buy the oil from Saddam Hussein like Russia, China and France.

Answer 5

Well, it sounds like your professor is doing what he set out to do with that young man, and that's making a true Lib out of him. You people need to get over this "oppressed victim" mentality. True, America was built on legal immigrants that worked hard, fought for many freedoms, and it was those terrible immigrants you Libs hate that fought, and died for the slave's freedom. Here's some advice; Get over this whole, "I'm oppressed because I'm black..." It's old, and untrue. Look at Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Lynn Swann, JC Watts, Alan Keyes among many others. They didn't get where they're at today by playing the victim. Put on your big girl pants, and get over it.

Answer 6

A pure sign of the liberal infestation of the college system in the US. They will do anything to blame America for all the woes of the world and teach hatred of America so they can bring the country down. That is the only reason they teach stuff like that.