*Late stage capitalism can’t innovate. The industrial revolution and internet revolution, among others, were fueled by Western capitalists. Adopting capitalism early on is about 75% of the reason the West is at the top of the modern world order.
That’s late stage capitalism, which only really started in the 80s. Early to middle capitalism is a mix of both panels. I’ll just link my other comment here.
Honestly, not really. Colonialism made Western Europe wealthier for the time period, but it was investment in science and technology that gave the West the industrial and technological advantage that sets them aside from the rest of the world (other than China) today. There are very few non-Western non-China countries where appreciable heavy industry takes place that isn’t resource extraction-parallel like oil refinement. There are also very few non-Western non-China countries with the industrial capital and technological knowhow to, for example, make smartphones.
You’ll notice that I keep including China as an exception here, which is because China noticed the importance of these things and went ahead to develop/steal these, and it’s because it was able to obtain these things that China is the global giant that it is today.
‘Investment’ is a nice way to put it. A more apt description would be that the developing world invested in the West’s industrialization (or the West stole it, whatever floats your boat) and the Western world chose to give essentially nothing back to its investors, directly contradicting the new capitalist world it had created.
Which is why many in the developing world feel that China’s rise to prominence is the West’s chickens coming home to roost.
A Kenyan official once said: ‘When China visits we get a hospital. When Britain visits we get a lecture’
Again, I won’t argue that colonial wealth didn’t contribute to the rise of Western Europe, but it was Europeans who invented the steam engine, developed thermodynamics as a science and put half a continent’s worth of resources and intellect into the industrial revolution. Colonialism is only a contributing factor that came after the start of the industrial revolution. Hell, France for example barely had any colonies during the early industrial revolution and that didn’t at all impede its industrialization or rise to power. If you look at, say, Ottoman history you’ll see that the thing European countries had and the Ottomans didn’t wasn’t wealth but rather ideas.
Which is why many in the developing world feel that China’s rise to prominence is the West’s chickens coming home to roost.
As someone from the developing world (specifically the Middle East), we are salty about colonialism, but many of us also recognize that if we don’t learn from the history of colonialism and what allowed Europe to conquer half the world (including us) we’ll always be on the bottom rung of the world. There’s a lot more to learn from the rise of Europe than “fuck colonialism”.
Colonialism is essentially theft with a pretty red ribbon on top to make it look good so we can all unequivocally say fuck colonialism.
But my point is beyond that. It’s that the progress that’s been achieved through those ideas you’re celebrating was predicated on theft from and suffering of people in developing countries. In a sense those in developing countries have an ownership stake in Western industrialization and China is the first previously developing nation that’s coming to take back what is, in part, theirs. The West needs to come to terms with the fact that they won’t be the last to do so.
The internet was developed by ARPA, then later made available to universities and eventually private connections. Military and public research developed the tech, capitalists figured out how to most efficiently sell junk using the tech.
Capitalism can’t innovate.
*Late stage capitalism can’t innovate. The industrial revolution and internet revolution, among others, were fueled by Western capitalists. Adopting capitalism early on is about 75% of the reason the West is at the top of the modern world order.
That’s late stage capitalism, which only really started in the 80s. Early to middle capitalism is a mix of both panels. I’ll just link my other comment here.
Honestly, not really. Colonialism made Western Europe wealthier for the time period, but it was investment in science and technology that gave the West the industrial and technological advantage that sets them aside from the rest of the world (other than China) today. There are very few non-Western non-China countries where appreciable heavy industry takes place that isn’t resource extraction-parallel like oil refinement. There are also very few non-Western non-China countries with the industrial capital and technological knowhow to, for example, make smartphones.
You’ll notice that I keep including China as an exception here, which is because China noticed the importance of these things and went ahead to develop/steal these, and it’s because it was able to obtain these things that China is the global giant that it is today.
‘Investment’ is a nice way to put it. A more apt description would be that the developing world invested in the West’s industrialization (or the West stole it, whatever floats your boat) and the Western world chose to give essentially nothing back to its investors, directly contradicting the new capitalist world it had created.
Which is why many in the developing world feel that China’s rise to prominence is the West’s chickens coming home to roost.
A Kenyan official once said: ‘When China visits we get a hospital. When Britain visits we get a lecture’
Again, I won’t argue that colonial wealth didn’t contribute to the rise of Western Europe, but it was Europeans who invented the steam engine, developed thermodynamics as a science and put half a continent’s worth of resources and intellect into the industrial revolution. Colonialism is only a contributing factor that came after the start of the industrial revolution. Hell, France for example barely had any colonies during the early industrial revolution and that didn’t at all impede its industrialization or rise to power. If you look at, say, Ottoman history you’ll see that the thing European countries had and the Ottomans didn’t wasn’t wealth but rather ideas.
As someone from the developing world (specifically the Middle East), we are salty about colonialism, but many of us also recognize that if we don’t learn from the history of colonialism and what allowed Europe to conquer half the world (including us) we’ll always be on the bottom rung of the world. There’s a lot more to learn from the rise of Europe than “fuck colonialism”.
Colonialism is essentially theft with a pretty red ribbon on top to make it look good so we can all unequivocally say fuck colonialism.
But my point is beyond that. It’s that the progress that’s been achieved through those ideas you’re celebrating was predicated on theft from and suffering of people in developing countries. In a sense those in developing countries have an ownership stake in Western industrialization and China is the first previously developing nation that’s coming to take back what is, in part, theirs. The West needs to come to terms with the fact that they won’t be the last to do so.
Two sides of the same coin. Colonialism is an implementation of the capitalist notion of comparative advantage, stabilized and enforced with guns.
The internet was developed by ARPA, then later made available to universities and eventually private connections. Military and public research developed the tech, capitalists figured out how to most efficiently sell junk using the tech.
I mean yes, true, but it was capitalists who made smartphones and computers. I’ll just link my other reply here.
Lately, capitalists of a very mercanitlist kind.