First, the western world has so many foundational ideas beyond Christianity that we take for granted. For instance, rights language. We talk about our right to this and that, but that is only after hundreds of years of getting it wrong and consciously working towards better models. The "east" only has one rival school, Confucianism, which the middle east does not hold. The middle east has no real rights language at all, spare religious orders.

One again, Japan isn't a "great" model for liberty, but compared to the dictatorships of the middle east, it is a pillar. I mean, just 50 years ago they had a emperors, and not just ceremonial ones. I don't want to breeze by all the very important points you bring up, they have a long way to go...and they still are very exclusionary in many ways. But comparable that to women being stoned for being in a room with a man that is not their husband.

I don't think any of his examples where bad, in fact, they showed the small case compared to the large cases. Japan has had partial implementation of western ideas and values, and has had partial success with social change for the better. He has to be careful what examples he uses. He can't use the USA as an example without being completely ostracized. And even then the United States has a similar story to tell about colonization and displacement of natives.

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Mmmm I don't know, I think his praisal of western culture comes from being frustrated with his own culture. In fact, what's so different about western world and the spread of Christianity vs the spread of Muslim teachings and its expansion to east and west? It's basically the same thing when you think about it. Both the west and middle east wanted to spread their teaching (by means of conquest most of the time). It's not like west did things any different than the Arabs.
And his examples are misleading. Japan isn't a great model for liberty and democracy. Japanese still very much live in a very closed society with limited exposure to foreign ideas. You don't hear of certain things on the news, females are still expected to behave certain ways, etc etc. The Yakuza still acts as the 'Samurai class' of the old days where they can get away with bullying its citizens. So much for individual liberty and freedom of ideas. However, its economy, technological innovation and civil infrastructure did benefit largely from western teachings tremendously, which it could not have gotten from within its closed society model.
Australia and South Africa was born out of colonization and by enslaving the indigenous population and this too makes for a terrible example. But in today's world these guys enjoy stability and happiness where its citizens are happy and isn't looking to revolt at any second because they too adopt western technologies and other foreign ideas and methods to cope with their own environment.
One thing I do agree with him is when he says closed society lag behind other nations. Japan certainly was a closed society before the Americans forced open its gates, and the Japanese ended up with an empire of their own in the East. America opened its gates towards all immigrants and saw an incredible rate of growth for the past 3 centuries. 15th century Europe got a huge boost in culture and technology when they started accepting knowledge from outside their own worlds like the Arab culture and the Far East Chinese.
Openness to other cultures, philosophies and technology gives benefits to your own. This is what this man was trying to say, despite all the bad examples

EDIT - Actually, instead of just listing it, I'll copy out my descriptions of them too since I already wrote this up for another forum:


1. The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | Instrumental | 4.5/5

Simply put, a seamless, sweeping epic of genres that dabbles in everything from sombre piano ballads, to upbeat flamenco, caustic electronica, serene ambience, rhythmic percussive tribal drum sections and haunting string sections, imposing every possible emotion on the listener. If anything, the sole weakness is that the rough 2-3 minute length of each of the 31 songs means they don't work so effectively as standalone compositions but as verses in a protracted poem, making the idea of listening to the entirety of it a tad daunting.


2. Protest The Hero - Fortress | Progressive Metal | 4.5/5

Metal that while relatively intricate yet melodic enough and hell, catchy enough to avoid divulging into incomprehensible technical wankery. Lyrics abound with references to goddesses and dethroned kings but it's decidedly tongue in cheek. Perhaps the biggest weaknesses resides in a lack of coherence, a tendency for the album to mesh together as a string of riffs, with little sense of a recurring chorus or verses within songs, but then you can take that as a plus depending on how you look at it. Besides that and a couple of immensely obnoxious vocal lines it's a pretty solid effort all around.


3. Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema | Instrumental Trip-hop | 4.5/5

One of the least expected surprises this year for me, partly because I generally despise anything that relates in any way to hip-hop or remixes yet I was sold on first listen. It’s just such a supremely chilled out but simultaneously melodically multilayered album which weaves hip-hop/trip-hop styling with a fairly significant utilisation of violins, trumpets, keyboards and an organ, capping it off with a distinct jazz tinge.


4. In Mourning - Shrowded Divine | Melodic Death Metal | 4/5

Genre-wise they’re probably best described as melodic death metal based but with progressive and doom influenced sections, reminiscent of Opeth, but not exactly the same. I initially junked this when I first picked it up but it’s grown on me immensely since then. There’s nothing immediately about them that sticks out as particularly impressive, the riffs aren’t all too complex, the melody isn’t overly diverse. If anything the drumming is quite good and both the harsh and clean vocals are solid. Nevertheless they clearly have a knack for creating memorable melody lines, and many minor touches such as the use juxtaposed clean and harsh vocals of essentially the same lines, coupled with a number of sexy breakdowns and a consistently bleak and permeating tone really make this album memorable in some indescribable way.


5. Transcending Bizarre? - The Serpent's Manifolds | Avant-Garde Black Metal | 4/5

Typical black metal brain mashing, but nicely broken up by violin sections to prevent migraines! Again it really feels like this band just clicks, but that not to say they can’t put out some impressively melodic riffs, and solos or bring it intensity-wise. In terms of criticism, there’s probably too much reliance on violin for a metal album, but that’s a very subjective disparagement, also a select few sections drag a bit ... oh and the intro is obnoxious and highly skipable. Oh and keyboards, oh the humanity! Run for the hills!


6. Thrice - The Alchemy Index - Vol.3 & 4 Air & Earth | Experimental Rock | 4/5

Partially successful but suffers from issues strangely distinct from the first two volumes. Whereas the first two could perhaps be argued to have taken the element concepts too literally both melodically and lyric-wise, this time around there are fairly tentative connections to the elements. With Air there’s simply a heavy use of reverb and echo to create the impression of an expansive soundscape, among a number of other tricks; whereas Earth is merely embodied by heavy use of stripped back and stark acoustic guitar with an American folk grounding. In all, neither really captures the concept as effectively as the haphazard, chaotic, distorting Fire; and if anything the biggest weakness of Air is it doesn’t distance it enough from the seeping smoothness that characterised Water to offer anything particularly distinctive. All in all it still remains an intriguing unconventional attempt with a number of standout songs, particularly the sonnets that outro each of the volumes oddly enough, led by consistently strong vocals.


7. Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer The Book of Angels - Vol. 10 | Jazz | 4/5

I'm not really qualified to comment on or critique jazz as I'm very much a neophyte to it, but this is some excellent stuff.


8. Lights Out Asia - Eyes Like Brontide | Post Rock | 4/5

To me the main element any post rock effort needs to really be effective is a pervasive, consistent atmosphere, which this album abounds with. It doesn't fall into clichés such as blasting you into submission by badgering you with volume changes, or an over reliance on monotonous arpeggios, but builds upon subtle layers of sound to create a vast, rich soundscape of echoing guitars, staccato electronica beats and fleeting vocals.


9. Opeth - Watershed | Progressive Death Metal | 4/5

Disappointingly inconsistent by their standards, but still a pretty solid album all around. Some songs definitely drag massively, and certain parts sound technically overindulging and tiresome particularly the outro to Burden. On the other hand in my humble opinion it also has some of the best songs they have written, the way the progressive acoustic guitar section fades in and out in Porcelain Heart for example is seamlessly mesmerising, Hessian Peel is almost equally memorable. Regardless this is no Blackwater Park unfortunately.


10. Mutyumu - Ilya | Post Rock | 4/5

Post rock doesn't really give this band justice. It's like an odd mix of opera and hardcore Japanese vocals, with heavily piano reliant post rock grounding. Awesome? Somewhat. Half the time its carried by stirring complex but seemingly effortless piano and string sections unfolding at a blistering pace coupled with occasional strangely effective hushed murmurs, yet the other half of the time it cascades into almost unbearable droning repetition. Now given that, Prayer is damn well one of the best post rock songs I have ever heard and it really is a pity that the rest of the album wasn’t equally brilliant. I probably overrate this a tad too but well ... goshdarnit it’s all gotta be about job creation and shoring up our economy.