Steve
05-13-2007, 10:23 PM
Pope Benedict XVI blamed Marxism and unbridled capitalism for Latin America's problems..... (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/05/13/pope.brazil.ap/index.html)
Of course, poverty, high illiteracy rates, and a history of military dictatorships has nothing to do with it. Nope. Not even a mention of those things....
To be sure, the Cold War resulted in some pretty dysfunctional geopolitics in South America and the U.S.' role wasn't exactly spotless. I think the current Pope is grossly oversimplifying matters, however.
Stiofán
05-14-2007, 12:28 AM
The Catholic Church is the most capitalistic organization in existance, but what the "Pope" says pretty much interests me not at all.
drntdrtydg
05-30-2007, 02:35 PM
Pope Benedict XVI blamed Marxism and unbridled capitalism for Latin America's problems..... (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/05/13/pope.brazil.ap/index.html)
Of course, poverty, high illiteracy rates, and a history of military dictatorships has nothing to do with it. Nope. Not even a mention of those things....
To be sure, the Cold War resulted in some pretty dysfunctional geopolitics in South America and the U.S.' role wasn't exactly spotless. I think the current Pope is grossly oversimplifying matters, however.
As if Popey.
South America didn't have the recepie that the English colonies did. One more time, here's the ingredients:
1215 AD. The Magna Carta. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta) England.
Magna Carta was the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_law) today. Magna Carta influenced many common law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law) and other documents, such as the United States Constitution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution) and Bill of Rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights), and is considered one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_democracy).
Magna Carta was originally written because of disagreements between Pope Innocent III (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III), King John (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_England) and his English barons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Baronies_in_the_Peerage_of_England) about the rights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right) of the King (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_monarchy). -Wikipedia.
1265 Parlimentary systems. England
The first English Parliament (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament) was formed during the reign of King Henry III (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament) in the 13th century. In 1265...
Capitalism as opposed to feudalism:16th through 19 centuries...particularly from Britain
Capitalist economic practices became institutionalized in Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe) between the 16th (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_century) and 19th centuries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century), although some features of capitalist organization existed in the ancient world.<SUP class=reference id=_ref-7>[9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism#_note-7)</SUP> Capitalism has emerged as the Western world's dominant economic system since the decline of feudalism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism), which eroded traditional political and religious restraints on capitalist exchange. Capitalism gradually spread from Europe, particularly from Britain,-Wikepedia
Protestantism-1529 England.
The doctrines of the Reformation can be summarized as a) the rejection of papal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant) authority, b) rejection of some fundamental Roman Catholic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant) doctrines, c) the priesthood of all believers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant)-Wikipedia
By placing the locus of moral questions on the heart of the individual instead of the authority of the Church Protestanism infused our culture with it's current intense debates over moral issues-something unheard of if moral issues were decided in Rome. Even American Catholicism under John Carrol (a friend of Ben Franklins) was profoundly influenced as such.
Jeffersonian Democracy 1776 English Colonies
. Jefferson differed from the Federalists in that he saw government as a threat to individual freedom; the only protection against that threat was democracy and strong protections of personal liberties. -Pearson Education, Inc (http://wps.ablongman.com/long_carnes_an_11/0,7137,250964-,00.html)
The ingredients of South American cultural complexes are different:
Conquistidores bequeathed a military tradition of violent overthrow of governments, something repeated throught their history.
The Spanish Aristocracy bequeathed a class system of inequity and social immobility.
The dominant Catholic missions bequeathed a tradition of moral issies decided by a central authority rather than personal introspection.
Prechristian religions also continued to influence the mindset and mythos of the cultures with a surreal mysticism and fatalism still reflected in their art and literature where surrealistic painting is excelled by none than South American painters and writiers. (Tomas Sanchez, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.)