ummmmwhat the crap, i neverer mentioned post modernism at all, post modernism is a load of shite, lol and disreguarding the philosophical problems of empericism....surely you jest??? what about usining logic an' mathematics....

what im talking about is along the lines of Shmuel N Eisenstadts theory of multiple modernities.  (i recommend to anyone who may have an interest in this topic btw).  of course there are amazing advancements in science that have bettered our lives, but what im talkin' about is the fact that in the west, we assume that any society going through some form of moderinsation will become like us, whether that be liberal democratic ideals, free markets, social structures etc.   what we fail to recognise is that rather than these societies becoming mirror images of us, they can potentially take the technoligical advancements that are offered in our cultural project of modernity, without all the f'd-upness of our societies while preserving certain values that we have lost (to a great detriment ) during our own modernisation.

yourculture meter is spot on, your an instrumental rationalist individual like the enlightenment has taught you to be.  but that doesnt mean that our modernity is or should be universal, nor does it mean that it is the best or only option out there.  you cannot argue that the arab world isnt modern, but it is definately not a mirror image of our own, to be sure.  and besides, part of western modernity is freedom from traditional religious authority, yet one of themost modern cultures in the world, America, is also deeply deeply relgious.  also china is equally modern, but confucious cultural values dominate their society and be very different from those 'espoused' in the west, for example equality rather than freedom, sympathy rather than rationality, civility rather than law, duty rather than rights etc

one of the many problems with th'ewest is that our culture needs to become a learning as well as teaching society,  yes we have imporved the lives of other people in other cultures through our scientific and technological break throughs, but it doenst mean that we cant learn from them and improve our own societies

man i hate pirate day