PBS - The West and the Rest, or the West in Decline

Niall Ferguson presented an interesting program on PBS TV – The West and the Rest,  22 May 2012, which asked the question of how the West came to dominate the globe during the past few centuries.  Ferguson wonders if that dominance will continue.  He mentions various topics that he thinks led to Western dominance.  However, by discussing the Turks in one topic area, and the topic of competition, more with the Chinese, and never mentioning the taboo topic of affirmative action in the US, Ferguson plays it safe.  He had better not offend the Left that makes the decisions about programming on PBS.  I went to the PBS web site and posted the following comment.  One wonders if my comment will remain or be removed.-------Hugh Murray

Hugh 

Ferguson also stresses the importance of competition later in the program, when he notes that when the Ottoman Turks were ascending, they used a merit system for the civil service. Later, the service was opened to Turks, merit abandoned, corruption flourished, and the empire declined. The US once had merit as the basis for advancement in its civil service and in industry. The merit system, however, was abandoned as affirmative action preferences were awarded to pet groups, while better qualified candidates experienced the negative action of being white males. Merit has been abandoned in the US for 50 years. Instead of hiring the best, one is hired because they are this minority or that. No wonder America is in decline. No wonder other nations may rise to dominate the 21st century.
A reply:
The comments of “Hugh” provide a glowing example of how Ferguson’s hackery and BS ahistory appeal to racists in bThe comments of “Hugh” provide a glowing example of how Ferguson’s hackery and BS ahistory appeal to racists in both the US and Europe. The US is failing because of affirmative action….Wait! didn’t Ferguson claim that segregation had to do with the rise of US prosperity? He did…but slavery had EVERYTHING to do with it.

Reply ↓

·         Hughon May 23, 2012 at 2:16 am said:

If slavery had everything to do with it, why did not the other slave areas prosper? North Africans raided Italy, France, Spain, even on occasion up to Iceland, taking slaves. The sub-Saharan Africans sold to the New World had been slaves in the Old. It is America that sent ships to Tripoli to end the Arab piracy and taking slaves of Western seamen.

Merit was once part of the American system. The Left elite used affirmative action to destroy it. The Left elite knows it will cause the destruction of America and the West; but the Left elite hates the West, and is overjoyed to see our demise. Recall the chant at Stanford, “Hey, Hey! Ho, Ho! Western Civ. has got to go.”oth the US and Europe. The US is failing because of affirmative action….Wait! didn’t Ferguson claim that segregation had to do with the rise of US prosperity? He did…but slavery had EVERYTHING to do with it.

T