Comments by "Lynott Parris" (@DenUitvreter) on "Joe Rogan: There's a Reason America Became the Greatest Human Success Story" video.

  1. Freedom was already what the Dutch Republic was founded on in the late 1500s, natural, inalienable rights were claimed and the freedom of conscience in particular to stand up against tyranny and create a nation state in which souvereignty was no longer in the monarch but in the people. The American DOI is materially almost a carbon copy of the Dutch DOI of 1581. The big difference is that after two centuries of enligthenment, the ideas mostly printed in the free Dutch Republic, the Americans did not make it on the go from pre existing state structures, but started with a clean slate to come up with a neat design of a state. Humans have morality because they are group animals, they have empathy so "don't do to others what you don't want to be done to you" and then we are already halfway Kant's categorical imperative. Percentage wise, Western civilization's wars were probably less deadly than those of other civilizations. Western civilization has also allowed for huge population growth through it's medicine and agriculture so it's not fair to hold the absolute numbers against it.
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