I don’t think this is the angle you’re meaning to look at things from here, but a thing this reminds me of is I feel just… pretty confused about how to relate emotionally to things that are horrifying to my current moral outlook, but, also seem like they were necessary for my current moral outlook to come into being.
(See also: maybe expansionistic imperialism and eradication of local culture was necessary for bringing the worldview of “universalish humanism” into existence. Or maybe not, I dunno, but I don’t quite know how to handle it if it was. I think you handle this by not being as into universal-ish humanism. Currently I just go “something something, meditate on green”)
Well, Christianity sometimes spread by conquest, but other times it spread peacefully just as effectively. Same for democracy. So I don’t think the spread of moral values requires conquest.
I don’t think this is the angle you’re meaning to look at things from here, but a thing this reminds me of is I feel just… pretty confused about how to relate emotionally to things that are horrifying to my current moral outlook, but, also seem like they were necessary for my current moral outlook to come into being.
(See also: maybe expansionistic imperialism and eradication of local culture was necessary for bringing the worldview of “universalish humanism” into existence. Or maybe not, I dunno, but I don’t quite know how to handle it if it was. I think you handle this by not being as into universal-ish humanism. Currently I just go “something something, meditate on green”)
Well, Christianity sometimes spread by conquest, but other times it spread peacefully just as effectively. Same for democracy. So I don’t think the spread of moral values requires conquest.